
Class^L^-O-TJ' 
Book .C. (aQ> 



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^775 Jmxm on g)ion. 






PAST AND TO COME. 



BY 



CHRISTIAN EMANUEL, Es& 



■Mysterious power 



Reveai'd, yet unreveal'd, darkness in light ! 
Nvimber in unity I Our joy, our dread I 
Trine, unutterable, uncor.eeiv'd! 
Absconding, yet demonstrable great God. 

Churchey. 



LONDON : 

PRINTED IN THE YEAR 

1816. 






^0/ 






r< 



CONTENTS. 



Chapter I. 
Miracles of the Old Testament 1 

Chapter II. 
Miracles of the New Testament 47 

Chapter III. 
Prophecies of the Old Testament 80 

Chapter IV. 
Prophecies of the Neiv Testament 92 

Chapter V. 
Mysteries of the Christian Religion 101 

Chapter VI. 
Morality of the Christian Religion 113 

Chapter VII. 
Consolation of Religion 1£9 



fattttg on ^ion. 



OR 



PAST AND TO COME. 



CHAP. I. 

Miracles of the Old Testament. 

Vv HEN such commotion has been excited in 
the religious worlds when three potentates have 
concluded a Christian treaty; when the ministers 
of the sovereigns of Europe have established an 
everlasting peace in the name of the Holy and 
Undivided Trinity; when we had almost obtain- 
ed in London an Association of theological book- 
sellers, as we have long enjoyed the Society for 
the suppression of Vice; when Prayer-Book and 
Homily societies, and Bible societies, central and 
eccentric, urban and suburban, have been formed 
by Protestants and Dissenters, who distribute at 
home and abroad, by sea and land, hundreds of 
thousands of volumes of the Scriptures in all lan- 
guages ; when such efforts are made, to convert 
Jews in England, and Caffres and Hindus in 
Africa and the East ; when the works of Hannah 



More and Mr. Wilberforce — the alphabets of the 
Innocents, are rivalled by their aspiring disci- 
ples; when the Apocalypse is illustrated by some 
ghostly author once a week : at such a time a 
compendium of the most important particulars, 
which constitute the national Church of England 
established by law, may be instructive. 

I divide this summary into seven chapters; in 
which I shall successively review the Miracles of 
the Old Testament — the Miracles of the New— 
the Prophecies of the Old — the Prophecies of 
the New — the Mysteries — the Morality — and the 
Consolation afforded by the Christian religion. 

As the Old Testament is the foundation of the 
New, both participating one identical system, 
I will commence with the miracles of the Old, 
not because they transcend those of the New 
Testament, but because they anticipate them in 
order of time, as the flocks of quails preceded 
the manna in the wilderness. To begin with 
Genesis. 

" In the beginning God created the heaven and 
the earth." On this brief sentence, volumes have 
been written. It has been inquired who speaks? 
and again, on what authority ? what is meant by 
the beginning ? It has been asked what God ? And 
there were ancient heretics, who insisted " that 
the God of the Jews, the creator of the mun- 
dane system, was not the supreme deity." — It 
has been asked, what means created? It has 



been answered triumphantly, making all out of 
nothing. Many pious men have attempted also 
to fix the chronology of the creation. The He- 
brew text reckons 4G04 years from that period to 
the birth of Christ. The Samaritan, 4305. The 
Septuagint, 5270. Even the Vatican and the 
Alexandrian copies of the Septuagint,* disagree 
in this particular; yet some have disputed whe- 
ther the Sun, on the sixth day, were in the Lion 
or the Ram, while Julius Africanus insisted that 
the world was made on the first of September, 
and was 5508 years, three months, and twenty- 
five days old at the birth of Christ. It may ap- 
pear perhaps that 1 have dwelt rather long on 
this commencing sentence; but the reader should 
observe that Horsleyf affirms demonstratively 
*^ every sentence of the Bible is from God, and 
every man is interested in the meaning of it." 

*' The earth was without form and void, and 
darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the 
spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.'* 
— " And God said, let there be light, and there 
was light" — what light? perhaps the spirit which 
moved upon the face of the waters, which was con- 



* Usher admitted the account of the Septuagint version, 
in order to moderate the prejudices of ecclesiastics on that 
subject ; but he said that version was destroyed by fire, and 
that the existing Alexandrian version was made under Philo- 
meter. 

t Sermons, vol. i. p. 7. 
B 2 



gregated into one great ignis fatims. — ^^ And 
God saw the light, that it was good, and God 
divided the light from the darkness. And God 
called the light day, and the darkness he called 
night, and the evening and the morning were 
the first day." This has perplexed many, who 
have inquired how day and evening and morning 
could exist without the sun. Mr. Townsend 
in his life of Moses, admits this to be prosaically 
impossible — he adds however, '^ that in perfect 
conformity to prophetic language, the term day 
may be referred to a period in general.'' True: 
and it would be strange if the same power which 
created a world out of nothing, should not em- 
ploy language with uncontrolable license in re- 
lating this achievement. 

The second day's creation being effected, and 
the third day's also, on the fourth day " God 
said, let there be lights in the firmament of hea- 
ven to divide the day from the night," &c. " And 
God made two great lights, the greater light to 
rule the day, the lesser light to rule the night : 
he made the stars also." La Place* disregards 
this arrangement, saying, that we are often de- 



* Quelques partisans des causes finales ont imagine que la 
lune avait ete donnee a la terre pour Teclairer pendant le» 
nuits. Dans ce cas la nature n'aurait point atteinte le but 
qu'elle se serait proposee ; puisque souvent nous sommes prives 
a la fois de la lumiere du soleil et celle de la lune/' &c. — Sys- 
ieme du Monde, torn. ii. p. 91. 



prived of the light both of the Sun and the Moon, 
It is also remarkable that in Genesis, the earth is 
called into being, and even organized before the 
stars; yet it is said in Job, that when '' the foun- 
dation of the earth was laid, the morning stars 
sang together, and all the sons of God shouted 
for joy.'^— c. 37. v. 7. On the fifth day, God 
began his day's work by creating great whales, &c. 
On the sixth, " God said, let us make man in 
our image, after our likeness, and let theiiiy' &c. 
Us and them in this passage have caused infinite 
perplexity 3 by us it is questionable^ whether 
God addressed a consistory of angels — though 
perhaps it rather intimates a parlance betw^een 
the three-in-one. Them in the same sentence 
has also been regarded with equal distress, and 
particularly because it is stated in v. xxvii. and 
xxviii. " in the image of God created he him, 
male and female created he them. And God 
blessed them, and God said unto them, be fruit- 
ful and multiply, and replenish the earth," &c. 
This command of us to them is made by God to 
Adam before the existence of Eve, and hence it 
has been imagined that Adam w^as originally an 
hermaphrodite, and that he had by some means 
a power of producing his own kind by himself. 
That Adam was so gifted receives some support 
also from an Orphic verse, in which Jupiter en- 
joys the epicene prerogative. 



It occurs to me also to offer here, for the coo* 
sideration of the admirers of Messrs Bryant, 
Faber, Davies, and Christie, — whether Adam and 
Jupiter were not the same, for Duport has prov- 
ed the identity of Homer and Solomon. Mr. 
Christie particularly indulges in the most airy 
and luminous speculations; as in his Disquisition 
on Etruscan Vases, he says, " the Chinese feast 
of Lanterns, no doubt, was equally designed to 
inforce the immortality of the soul, by the inge- 
nious and pleasing medium of moving transpa- 
rencies.'* 1 hope this elegant and ingenious 
scholar will not forget to place Mr. Winsor, in- 
ventor of the Gas-lights, among the modern con- 
tributors to the verity of that splendid dogma. 
Yet unfortunately for Mr. Christie's opinion, Sir 
G. Staunton* informs the world, «' few in China 
carry their objects to be attained by devotion 
beyond this life ;" — for in China, there is no es- 
tablished f priesthood, and the civil magistrate 
has ample authority, by the simple exertions of 
temporal dominion. 

I cannot dismiss the union of productive pow- 
ers supposed to be enjoyed by Adam, without 
observing, that Aristophanes J makes Socrates 



* Embassy to China. 

t The rehgion of the state of China, cannot properly be 
said to have any priests whatsoever. Barrow, vol. ii. p. 267. 

t Tnv TE ^Xeiccv x«A8K AhsKrpvovec x«Ta 7»vto nui t«p aggij^a. 
Nubes, act ii. so. 1. 



^ 



•> 



instruct his scholar Strepsiades in the compound 
gender of pullets. The same Aristophanes, in 
Plato's Convivium* says, that " man and woman 
originally made one person, that they consulted 
how they might attack the Gods, on this ac- 
count they were split into two; and that Jupiter 
said, if they ever again rebelled, he would re- 
cleave them, and reduce them to hopping." 
This quotation I consider pregnant with theo- 
logical matter of high import, on the subject of 
us and theniy which in phraseology, resembles a 
verse in a Golden Legend published by Dr. D. 
Clarke, from a manuscript in the Cottonian 
library, 

" He was a woman, that was his name/* 

It appears however to me, that the wonderful 
creature Adam, was ihejirst-horn mail, to use an 
expression of the antediluvian poet, Mr. Mont- 
gomery, in his World before the Flood : 

'* Thus music's empire in the soul began — 
" The first-born poet rulM the first-born man/' 

Yet the Reverend Thomas Webster, in 1814, 
proves, he says, that the world was created and 
inhabited 12,000 years before Adam. How far 
the Quarterly Reviewers coincide with the pre- 

* Opera Omnia, p. 1186. Perhaps it was under the no- 
tion of the composite order of Adam originally, that cer- 
tain heretics, whom Austin combats, believed that women are 
to be made men at the resurrection. 



Adamites, I cannot determine ; but in number^ 
March, 1813, p. 34, they agree that the days of 
the creation were periods of indejinitely long dura- 
tion; and they add, this arises /ro/Tz the discoveries 
on or beneath the eartKs surface. This I hold to 
be dangerous ; for should we proceed after this 
rate of interpretation, we shall have at last, as 
the learned author of the Pursuits of Literature 
insists, in reply to Geddes, neither miracles 
nor mysteries. I therefore consider, with the 
good old theologians, that a day* of the crea- 
tion was twenty-four hours 3 and that in six times 
twenty-four hours, the Lord made the heaven 
and the earth, and all that in them is. This is 
truly divine, evincing mighty expedition, — the 
promptness of creation is sublime beyond ca- 
villing. — Moses makes his God execute all things 
in six days. — Mark the superiority of the God 
of Moses, to the God of the Tyrrheni,f who, 
instead of six days, required six thousand years 
to accomplish the same exploit. 

" Thus the heavens and the earth were finish- 
ed, and all the host of them. And on the se- 



* Yet I disclaim herasis ilia vetusta qua dixit nomine dir 
enim Soils, Lunce,, Martis, Mercurii, Jovis, Veneris, Saturni, a 
Deo ita posita ah origine mundi, &c. Selden de J. N. et 
G. lib. 3. c. xix. p. 412. 

t Suidas, ill vocem Tyrrheni. — According to the Parsees, 
reducing the world to order, required three-hundred and 
sixty -five days. 



9 

venth day God ended his work which he had 
made, and he rested on the seventh day from all 
his work. And God blessed the seventh day 
and sanctified it." It has appeared strange to 
many, that God should express any feeling of 
fatigue : some have conjectured that this was 
merely an exalted mode of recommending an 
interval of remission from labour, and it may be 
observed, that to the theological motive is added, 
in Deuteronomy, " that thy man-servant and 
thy maid-servant may rest as well as thou." 
Seven was a favourite number with the Hebrews 
and their god 3 and with the god of the pagans. 
Theodorus said,* that Jove laughed for seven 
days successively, and for that reason he esteem- 
ed the number seven perfect. 

God planted a garden and called it Eden, in 
which he placed Adam, authorizing him to eat 
of every thing except of the tree of knowledge. 
Adam then named all the beastsof the field, and 
all the fowls of the air, and fell asleep. Some 
have attempted to explain the means by which 
Adam obtained so fluent and copious a dialect; 
and a learned orientalist. Sir William Jones, p. 
17, supposes that language was breathed into 
Adam by God; thus then the same effect which 

Photius, Bib. p. 489. 



10 

gave life, gave discourse. The excellent South^ 
says, " Adam came into the wrorld a philoso» 
pher;" and a greater name, the author of Ocea- 
na, said, " Adam was a gentleman." 

When Adam was asleep, God bethought him- 
self that it was not good that man should be 
alone; he then took out one of Adam's ribs, of 
which he composed woman. So far the account 
does not materially differ from the relation in the 
Edda,f in which it is stated, that the first man 
and woman were formed of two pieces of wood, 
found floating on the waters. 

Scarcely had this original pair been domicili- 
ated in Eden, till their happiness changed to 
misery. The serpent, the subtlest beast in the 
field, accosted Eve, and persuaded her to eatj of 
the tree of knowledge. The colloquy of the ser- 
pent has alarmed many. The editor § of Cum- 
berland's Law of Nature says, the Jews give a 
different account of this, &c. ** that Samael 
rode upon the serpent as big as a camel when he 
tempted Eve." That Samael, or the devil, 
should ride on a serpent, is not more unlikely 
than that the God of the Hebrews should ride on 
a cherub, which Bishop Louth considers very 



* Sermons, vol. i. p. 53. 
t Mallet, North. Antiq., vol. ii. p. 20. 
t Various excuses have been made for Eve, as that the ser- 
pent tempted her just before dinner, during pregnancy, &c. 
§ Introduction, &c. p. 17. 



11 

grand and sublime: by the bye, in the Univer- 
sal History we are told, cherubims were beauti- 
ful flying oxen. Again, Dr. Adam Clark, in his 
commentary on the third chapter of Genesis, 
has endeavoured to prove that the temptation of 
Eve in Eden, was not by a serpent, but by a 
monkey of the ourang outang species. Yet still 
the ourang outang does not speak. This diffi- 
culty may, however, be overcome with the aid 
of Josephus, who informs us, that all living 
creatures, before Adam had eaten of the Tree of 
Knowledge, had the same language 5 which is 
supported by the assertion of the divine Plato, 
who in one of his lunar effusions says, that in 
Saturn's reign wild beasts* could discourse toge- 
ther ; and of course, with men, who were like 
them in primeval purity and native ignorance. 
For my part, I do not believe the tempter was 
an ourang outang, but a serpent, a talking ser- 
pent: if his address did not surprise Eve, why 
should it startle us ; probably the tempter was 
the amphisbaena, or mysterious double-headed 
serpent, so prominent a portrait, according to 
Humboldt, in the hieroglyphical pictures of 
Mexico. 

Eve having eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, 
gave of the fruit to her husband, and he ate 
thereof, " then their eyes were opened, and 

♦ AAXet xa» $>jf)»o»? 5taA»ya;i» ^vvav^on avvyiyna^M. Politicus, 
Opera Omnia, p. 538. 



they knew they were naked.'* Hence we learn 
the full meaning of " my mind's eye, Horatio." 
" And they sewed fig leaves, and made them- 
selves aprons," (some read breeches.) God on 
this became wroth. Adam and Eve heard God 
walking in the garden : he questions them, they 
acknowledge their transgression. God then 
curses the serpent, and condeams this gratuitous 
villain to move prone, ^^ on thy belly shalt thou 
go ;" hence it is clear that the fall of man and of 
the serpent was contemporary; and it is equally 
as probable that serpents in Eden moved up- 
rightly, as that men called Himantopades were 
serpentine* in their gait. God also command- 
ed, that there should subsist a perpetual enmity 
between man and the serpent ; and the dislike 
of man to serpents has been reputed a fulfil- 
ment of this vindictive prophecy. Had a simi- 
lar incidental prediction been extended to all 
venomous reptiles, I believe its verity would have 
been equally certified. Yet it happens unfortu- 
nately, that men have no such raging antipathy 
to serpents. The motion of this creature is pe- 
culiarly beautiful, f and generally admitted to 
be so. The Hivites adored the serpent. Aris- 



* '' Himantopades loripides quibus serpendo ingredi natura 
est Plinius." Hist. Nat. lib. 5, c. 8. 

t Carcinus said, y,izX» ro otpiv Xot^uv^ &c. on this there is a 
note, " sic flexuosuin instar serpentis scholion vocat." Athe- 
nseus, lib. 15, p. 695. 



13 

totle* mentions a sacred serpent in Thessaly, 
which was not of the mildest kind. Connor, in 
his Histoiy of Poland, (letter vi.) says, that the 
Lithuanians employ them as penates. Jack- 
son, in his Account of Morocco, states, that 
there is scarcely a house in that country without 
a household serpent. Bruce f also mentions, 
that the inhabitants at the source of the Nile, 
pray to serpents, because they teach them the 
coming of good and evil ; that they domesticate 
them, and employ them to prophesy, nearly as 
the Romans used the sacred chickens for the 
same purpose. 

God subjected Eve, on account of her offence, 
to Adam; and FeyjooJ conjectures, that in a 
state of innocence, man and woman were equal. 
God also pronounced, '' in sorrow thou shalt 
bring forth children." Browne, in his Religio 
Medici, says, ^' this is contradicted by whole 
nations,'* which must be admitted to be true. 
Then God anathematized man and the earth, 
^' cursed is the ground for thy sake;" thus 
children are directed by nurses to strike chair, 
table, or floor, when they are hurt by them. 
God continued to pour forth his vengeance on 
man : " in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat 
bread, till thou return unto the ground ." And 
thus the greatest curse of the pastoral Tartars 

* Opera Omnia, torn. i. p. 1167. f Travels, vol. iv. p. 433. 
i Three Essays, p. 113. 



14 

is, ** may you live in one place, and work like 
a Russian !" 

After this, *^ unto Adam also and to his wife 
did the Lord God make coats of skins, and 
cloathed them. And the Lord God said, behold 
the man is become as one of US, (who?) to know 
good and evil. And now lest he put forth his 
hand and eat of the tree of life, and eat and live 
for ever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth 
from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from 
whence he was taken. So drove out the man," 
&c. Some may think that this was a severe pu- 
nishment for a first fault; by no means, for the 
authors of the Encyclopedia Britanica (theology) 
inform us, " that Adam himself continued 930 
years a living monument of the justice and mercy 
of God : as well as of his love and long suffering 
towards the sinner.'* Besides, it is to be remark- 
ed, that driving the Adamites out of Eden, and 
thus separating them from the tree of life, was 
an act of self-defence of US ; for had they eaten 
of this tree, it appears that they would have be- 
come as one of US. And no doubt knowledge 
makes a great mutation in man, as Aristotle 
says, *' the difference between the learned and 
the ignorant, is as great as between the living 
and the dead." / 

The perniciousness of knowledge to the ease 
of society and of governors, has been always ad- 
mitted, and particularly by ecclesiastics, the 
guardians of the tree of knowledge. And I ask, 



15 

when were the clergy more powerful, or more 
opulent, than at the period when Dr. Forrest, bi- 
shop of Dunkeld, said of himself, *' I thank God, 
I have lived well these many years, and never 
knew the Old or New Testament. I content 
myself with my pontifical.'' 

When God drove out Adam, " he placed at 
the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and a 
flaming sword, which turned every way, to keep 
the way of the tree of life.'' Many have in- 
quired where Eden is or was. Every great di- 
vision of the earth has been honoured by its site. 
Rudbeck placed it in Lapland; the Ceylonese in 
Ceylon, (Percival's Ceylon, p. 51) ; but I agree 
with the conclusive supposition of Mr. Kirwan,* 
the chemist, that the spot " on which Paradise 
stood, seems to have been destroyed by a vol- 
cano." 

The account continues, stating that Eve had 
two children, called Cain and Abel, these made 
their offerings to the Lord, the Lord accepted 
the offering of Abel, ^* but unto Cain and his 
offering he had not respect." On this Cain was 
wroth, and he slew his brother. Thus the first 
reported ceremony of religion, in the first and 
only family on earth, caused a brother's murder. 
God cursed Cain, condemned him to hard la- 
bour, that he should be a fugitive and a vaga- 
bond. Cain expostulated, complained that the 

• Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xi. 



16 

punishment was intolerable, and that by being 
a vagabond on the earth " every oile (who ?) 
that findeth me shall slay me/* God then stig- 
matizes Cain, " lest any finding him should slay 
him/' 

In the fifth chapter, the genealogy, age, and 
death of the patriarchs, from Adam to Noah, 
are related. At this time men lived 800 or 
900 years. It appears then, that though far 
inferior in longevity to the primeval Hindus, 
who lived 10,000,000* of years, they were al- 
most as long lived as the first gods of the Egyp- 
tians, who, Diodorus Siculusf says, reigned 
1200 years. It must be observed also, that 
Plutarch (Numa, p. 188) would reduce this 
period, by saying, that the Egyptians counted 
their months as years. But we must believe that 
the patriarchs lived many hundred years, for 
this is marvellous. How lamentably have men 
declined! We find, as I have stated, that the 
patriarchs enjoyed a prolonged life of 900 
years ; yet in the next chapter, God states 
that man's days shall be 120 years. Solo- 
mon reduces this to 100 (Eccles. xviii. 9), and 
it is elsewhere related in the sacred volume, that 
the life of man is threescore and ten. To what 
shall mankind be reduced ? — they shall gradually 
shrink into ephemeral pigmies. I may observe, 
that the Egyptian gods also had their lives cur- 



* Asiatic Researches, vol. ix. p. 313. f Lib. 1. 



17 

tailed, from ISOO years to 300 years. Let it not 
be supposed, however, that I compare the ethnic 
tales with the sacred relation in Genesis ; for 
though the Jewish narrative is as extravagant as 
the accounts of the origin* and infancy of other 
nations, it is verity itself; while they are miserable 
fictions. Diodorus says, the Egyptians honoured 
the ancient worthies, in order to account for the 
length of time they said their government existed. 
Wickedness multiplied with an encreased po- 
pulation: " the sonsf of God saw the daughters 
of men, that they were fair, and then took them 
waives, all which they chose." " There were 
giants in the earth in those days." Some might 
suppose that these mighty creatures descended 
from the sons of God, and the daughters of men, 
signified obscurely kings, when church and state 
were united in the same persons; but this would 
open a wide and dangerous field of inquiry. 
There is no doubt of the existence of giants in 
ancient times. Cleon, the Magnesian, saw a 
man at Gades five acres long ; then why should 
PausaniasJ doubt that Tityus covered nine acres 
in his interment? To be sure, an elephant's§ 

* Megasthenes, who was the grossest story-teller of anti- 
quity, was startled at the Indian accounts : — Antiquis Indorum 
historiis fidem non esse adhibendum. Strabo, lib. 15, p. 414. 
What would he have said of the Hebrew ? 

t See Josephus, Antiq. lib. i. c. 3. Spencer de Legib. He- 
breorum, p. 63. 

1 Page 614, and seq. 

§ Sonnini mentions that this happened when he was at 
Alexandria. Travels, vol. i. p. 119. 

C 



18 

grinder, even in our days, has been mistaken for 
a giant's tooth : what then? Yet it is remark- 
able that Hercules, who appeeired in the ro- 
mantic era of Grecian history, and who performed 
wonders, was little more than the ordinary height. 
For though it might be supposed from the ex- 
pression ex pede Herculem, that he was colossal, 
the Herculean differed from the common foot only 
as 25 from 24. Britain also in the time of Faery y 
was troubled with a gigantic brood, who were 
produced in a manner somewhat corresponding 
to the scriptural account of the generation of 
giants : 



Far inland a salvage nation dwelt. 



" Of hideous giants and half beastly men, 

" Who companying with fiends and filthy sprites, 

" Through vain illusion of their lust unclean, 

" brought forth — such dreadful wights." * 

God repents that he made man, " and the 
Lord said, I will destroy man, whom I have 
created, from the face of the earth, both man and 
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of 
the air : for it repenteth me that I have made 
them.'* God ordiers Noah to make the ark of 
Gophen wood — he orders him to bring his family 
into the ark — " and of every thing of all flesh 
two of every sort," with provisions for them. 



* Spenser's Fairy Queen, b. ii. c. 10. — The Scandinavians 
had their giants, and similarly generated. Mallet, Hist. vol. i. 
K89. 



19 

The rain continued to fall for forty days, '' until 
the high hills that were under the whole heaven 
were covered," — " and the mountains were co- 
vered ;'* — yet in the Ayeen Akberry, (vol. ii. p. 
157,) though an inundation is admitted, it is 
insisted that the mountains of Cashmeer were not 
covered. The deluge of Moses partially coin- 
cides with that of Ogyges.* Indeed, Simplicius 
insisted that Moses adopted the whole tradition 
in Genesis from the Egyptians : that he took 
largely from that source is generally admitted. It 
appears, however, that an Egyptian priest, in the 
Timagus of Plato, torn. iii. p. S3, affirmed, there 
had happened many deluges 5 and Nonnus spe- 
cifies three inundations (Dionys. lib. iii. v. 137). 
Moses, who was inspired, speaks only of one. 
This aquatic destruction of all things is stated, 
in the margin of our parliamentary Bibles, to 
have happened 2349 years before the birth of 
our Saviour, which has not received the ready 
assent that it deserves. La Place, a Frenchman 
of some capacity, says, *^ plus de deux mille ans 
avant notre ere Tastronomie etait cultivee a la 
Chine," (Exposition duSysteme du Monde, torn, 
ii. p. 267,) that is, within a few centuries of this 
redoubtable flood. It has been also inferred that 
the Zodiacs of Dendira were constructed 3800 



* Cum novem et amplius mensibus diem continua nox 
inumbrasset. Delos ante omnes terras radiis solis illuminatum , 
&c. Polyhistor, lib. i. c. 17. 

C ^ 



20 

years ago, and that those of Esne are more an- 
cient than those of Dendira, by fifteen centuries. 

Many have inquired how a ship, about double 
the size of a first rate, could contain " of fowls 
after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, 
of every creeping thing of the earth after his 
kind, two of every sort,*' with provisions for so 
large a portion of a year. I admit it is hard to 
conceive, and it must have been effected by some 
economy in stowage, surpassing the well known 
exhibition of negroes in a slave-ship on the 
middle passage. Perhaps Peter's dream may 
elucidate this multum in parvo: Peter having 
fallen asleep through hunger ^^ saw heaven 
opened, and a certain vessel descending unto him, 
as it had been a great sheet, knit at the four 
corners, and let down to the earth ; wherein were 
all manner of four-footed beasts of the earth, and 
wild beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of 
the air. And there came a voice to him. Rise 
Peter, and kill and eat." Acts, x. 11. So said 
God to Noah after the flood, '^ every moving thing 
that liveth shall be meat for you.*' Gen. ix. 3. 

God's grant to Noah and his posterity, of this 
privilege of eating every living thing, seems, 
however, to have been suggested by the burnt- 
offerings offered by Noah to God, who " smelled 
a sweet savour." God then covenanted* with 



* This is a curious covenant : 
■' Sunt superis sua jura ; quid ad coelestia ritus 
• Exigere humanos, diversaque foedera tcnto" Ovid. Metam. 9. 

but 



21 

Noah and every living thing, that he would not 
again destroy the earth by a deluge. *' I set my 
bow in the clouds, and it shall be for a token of 
a covenant between me and the earth ; and the 
bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon 
it, that I may remember the everlasting cove- 
nant between God and every living thing.'' That 
is, God gave to the sun and the moon (for there 
are lunar rainbows) powers and properties that 
they had not hitherto possessed. This memorial 
was in fact a new creation. Antonio de Do- 
minis presumed to explain the cause of the rain- 
bow scientifically, for which the clergy had him 
thrown into prison, where he died, and he de- 
served it. What has science to do with the 
miracles of our holy religion ? 

The eleventh chapter begins " and the whole 
earth was of one language and of one speech." 
Then they proposed " to build a city and a 
town whose top may reach unto heaven ;" — and 
the Lord said, " Go to, let us go down, and there 
confound their language, that they may not 
understand one another's speech. So the Lord 
scattered them abroad from thence upon the 
face of the earth : and they left off to build the 
city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel." 



but it is still more curious, as God covenants not only with 
man but with every li-ving thing, that he would not destroy 
the world again by water, while he consign* every living 
thing to be eaten by man. 



22 

Yet in the preceding chapter x. 10.* it is said^ 
*^ And the beginning of his (Nimrod's) kingdom 
was Babel/' &c. — and the chapter concludes, 
" These are the sons of Shem^ after their families 
and their tongues ^ in their lands after their na- 
tions. These are the families of the sons of 
Noah, after their generations in the nations, and 
by these were the nations divided in the earth 
after the flood/' 

I have now conducted the reader to the end of 
the eleventh chapter of Genesis. Sir W. Jones, 
in his dissertation on the Gods of Greece, Italy, 
and Rome, says, " either the first eleven chapters 
of Genesis (all due allowance being made for a 
figurative eastern style) are true, or the whole 
fabric of our national religion is false," in which 
opinion I perfectly coincide. Let me add, that 
this revelation concerning Babel, answers many 
excellent purposes, it accounts for the dispersion 
of mankind, as we have no experience of a 
crowded population disposed to change their 
abode, and plant colonies. It also accounts for 
the variety of languages, though new languages 
are perpetually forming. This grand miracle is 
also explanatory of the venerable Bede's obser- 
vation; who said the divinity was worshipped in 
Britain in five different languages ; by the Angles, 
Britons, Picts, Scots, and Latins. (Whitacre's 

*^ Patrick, in his Chart of the ten numerals, wishes to con- 
sider this chapter as a geographical sketch of ancient Asia. 



23 

Manchester, p. 408.) Thus Babel and Chris- 
tianity entered our favored isle hand in hand 
together. 

A curious account follows, of four kings 
against five, — of a discourse between God and 
Abram, and of Abram entertaining three angels. 
The abundance of rustic fare offered to the ce- 
lestial guests, induced Dr. Adam Clarke shrewdly 
to say, ^' whence we may conclude men were great 
eaters in those days, and were probably of much 
larger stature, as well as longer livers than we." 
No doubt, but the doctor seems to have over- 
looked an important circumstance, namely, that 
the entertainment was prepared for no common 
angels or men, but for a trinity in unity, " and 
the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of 
Mamre : and he sat in the tent door in the lieat 
of the day. And he lift up his eyes and looked, 
and, lo ! three men stood by him ; and when he 
saw them he ran to met them from the tent door, 
and bowed himself towards the ground, and said, 
my Lord, if now I have found favour in thy 
sight," &c. Gen. xviii. the sequel is illustrative. 

Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed by brim- 
stone and fire sent from heaven. This account, 
the authors of the Encyclopedia Britanica (Scrip- 
ture) fortify, by saying, it would not be easy to 
shew why the sea of Sodom is so different from 
every other sea on the globe. Suppose so, must 
it follow, because a peculiarity affects a lake, or 
a sea, or any thing else, that a miraculous rela- 



24 

tion respecting its cause should obtain authen- 
ticity» Aristotle speaks of a lake in Crete, which 
emits fetid exhalations ^ and that the inhabitants 
affirm PhaDton, when struck with a thunder- 
bolt, fell into it (de Mirab. Ausc. Opera, torn, i, 
p. 1156). This lake is pecuhar, yet who credits 
the fable attached to it. It is remarkable that the 
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is related 
in the 19th chapter; but five chapters preced- 
ing, in the 14th, it is said, " the vale of Siddin 
was full of slime pits :'* and verse 10 continues, 
" the kings of Sodom and Gomorrah fled and 
fell there," which ends with a miracle a Tlrlan- 
daise, " and they that remained fled to the 
mountains." This, however, does not conclude 
the series of wonders ; for Lot's wife, in escaping 
from the devoted cities, became a pillar of salt. 
I hope the missionaries will narrowly inspect 
Calla-baugh, or the salt city, noticed by Elphin- 
stone; I vehemently suspect that the pillar of 
salt is the primary formation, or core, of this 
saline excrescence. 

I pass over the relation of Lot and his daugh- 
ters, of which there was, and is, perhaps, a fine 
painting in the Bishop of Durham's collection, 
at his palace at Durham. 

" And it came to pass after these things, that 
God did tempt Abraham ; and he ordered him to 
make a burnt-offering of his only son to him :" 
the sequel I need not relate. Jacob wrestles 
with God « until the breaking of the day 3" 



25 

Jacob discovered his antagonist " by the hollow 
of his thigh — and Jacob called the name of the 
place Pennel : for I have seen God face to face, 
and my life is preserved.*' 

Then we read of Joseph's reserve towards 
Potiphar's wife; and that Joseph interpreteth 
the dreams of the butler and baker, and of Pha- 
raoh. Joseph advises Pharaoh to provide a dis- 
creet minister, and forthwith he appoints Joseph^ 
who with the most loyal providence starved the 
whole people, till the king became possessed of 
all their money, and of all their cattle, and 
finally of all their land. What a trust-worthy 
minister ! what an exemplary prince ! " And 
as for the people, he removed them to cities from 
the end of the borders of Egypt, even to the 
other end thereof." Machiavel's prince studied 
in the same school. Yet the holy text indulges 
in no Jacobinical reflections on Pharaoh. Thus 
we find the legitiinacy of kings was omnipotent 
in this early age. Besides Pharaoh was a pious 
king, and the lands of the church were reserved 
from the royal monopoly 3 " the priests had a por- 
tion assigned them of Pharaoh, and did eat their 
portion which Pharaoh gave them, whereof they 
sold not their lands." 

I proceed to Exodus. In this second book of 
the Pentateuch, we are informed that the children 
of Israel who came to Egypt were fruitful, and 
multiplied. This is most certain; for sixty or 
seventy persons, (Gen. xlvi. 27.) though enslaved 



S6 

and oppressed, did, in no tedious course of time^ 
and in a populous monarchy, multiply to 
^,500,000 individuals, a number which now all 
Egypt scarcely exceeds. But then, says Mr. 
Atkins, on the authority of the Talmud, eigh- 
teen wives were allotted to every ordinary man ; 
and I say, of course, eighteen females were born 
for each male. No wonder then, that the He- 
brews multiplied so fast that the Egyptian king 
was alarmed. Pharaoh, who w^as a political 
economist, wished to apply a preventive check 
to their productiveness; for this purpose, he 
tampered with two Egyptian midwives, in order 
that they should destroy the male infants of the 
Hebrew women. " But the midwives feared 
the Lord, and did not as the king commanded 
them.'' 

Moses reaches manhood, kills an Egyptian 
for maltreating a Hebrew, and flies in conse- 
quence. God appears to Moses in a burning 
bush. ^^ And he said, draw not nigh hither. 
Put thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place 
whereon thou standest, is holy ground." Now 
it appears strange, that Hobbes (on Human 
Nature, p. 149) having stated among signs of 
contempt of divine majesty, ^' to neglect prayer, 
to speak to him extempore," &c. should account 
among things indifferent, *' to be uncovered, as 
to put off their shoes as Moses at the fiery 
bush." For is it not manifest, that this was 
most important ? The Turks continue this prac- 



^7 

tice, and they require the Christians, on enter- 
ing a mosque, also to conform to this solemnity. 
" However," says Hobhouse, " if they grudge 
this respect to Islamism, they may retain their 
hats, when they part with their shoes." (Tra- 
vels, p. 966.) 

Moses is advised by God to go to Pharaoh, 
and to bring the Israelites out of Egypt. Moses 
asks him what he shall say to them when they 
ask him what is the name of the God that sends 
him. ^^ And God said unto Moses, I AM 
THAT I AM. Thus thou shalt say unto the 
children of Israel, I AM hath sent me to you.'* 
This, which resembles the self- appellation of 
Ulysses, nobody, was not satisfactory to Moses. 
God then enabled him to work miracles, to 
change a rod into a serpent, and to infect his 
arm with leprosy, in order that he might work 
upon the credulity of the Israelites. Yet still 
Moses was doubtful of his ability to induce the 
Jews to believe in him, and he refused to proceed 
on this embassy, till Aaron the Levite was joined 
in his commission. In the sixth chapter, I AM 
reveals himself by the new name of JEHOVAH, 
which perhaps originated the permission to the 
elect of being new named at confirmation. 
Moses then proceeded to Pharaoh. 

Moses and Pharaoh*s wise men have a' trial of 
skill, when both converted rods into serpents — 
both changed pools and ponds and rivers into 
blood — both caused frogs to come on the land of 



28 

Egypt. The last miracle of transubstantiating 
dust into lice, the magicians could not effect. 
Then the magicians, with candour unusual 
among theologians, said unto Pharaoh, " this is 
the finger of God." Yet Pharaoh was obdurate, 
and disbelieved Moses and Aaron, and the lousy 
miracle. 

Then the Lord sent plague after plague on 
Egypt. But lest the Hebrews might suffer, he 
directed them to smear their door-posts with 
blood, " when I see the blood, I will pass over 
you" — and he did so — smiting the first-born of 
men and beasts throughout Egypt. This soft- 
ened Pharaoh's heart, and the Hebrews were 
dismissed from Egypt. The Hebrews on this 
occasion, mindful of God's repeated commands, 
possessed themselves, under colour of borrowing, 
whatever they could obtain from the Egyptians. 
Were not this ordered by God, it would have 
been robbery under false pretences 5 and Moses 
in consequence might have been addressed near- 
ly as an apostle was in the Acts, xxi. 38, by a 
certain captain — '' Art not thou that Egyptian, 
which before these days madest an uproar, and 
leddest out into the wilderness four thousand 
men that were murderers." 

God, anxious for his good people, conducts 
them, appearing by day a pillar of cloud, and 
by night a pillar of fire. They pass through the 
Red Sea, and '' the waters are a wall on their 
right hand, and on their left," Josephus, Antiq. 



29 

Jib. Q. c. 16. reduces this miracle^ by comparing 
it to the Pamphilian sea, admitting the passage 
of Alexander. Shaw (Travels, p. 313) is deserv- 
edly angry with Josephus for this rational expla- 
nation. Yet Dr. D. Clarke (Travels, p. 325) sup- 
ports the account given in Exodus, by relating, 
that the sea at Tagarok is so circumstanced, 
that the people can walk to the opposite shore, 
a distance of twenty versts, when the wind is in 
one direction ; and that when the wind changes, 
the sea returns. Hence Dr. D. Clarke may be 
classed with those mentioned by Browne, *' some 
believe the better for seeing Christ's sepulchre, 
and when they have seen the Red-sea, doubt not 
of the miracle." Religio Medici, part 1. § 9. 

Pharaoh's host, which pursued the Hebrews, 
are all drowned ; on this Moses sings a song, 
" the Lord is a man of war : the Lord is his 
name," &c. — Te Deums are of great antiquity. 

The Israelites in the wilderness, lament the 
flesh-pots of the Egyptians — God sends them 
quails for supper, and manna for breakfast.— 
They murmur for drink — Moses smites the rock, 
and water issues from it. Amalek fights Israel 
in Rephidim. " And it came to pass when Moses 
held up his hand, that Israel prevailed, and that 
when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed." 
The Lord directs Moses to memorial this in a 
book, as he intended utterly to put out the re- 
membrance of Amalek under heaven. — To re- 
cord, and to extinguish the memorial of a person 
or an event, is truly miraculous. 



so 

We are told of the fearful presence of God 
upon the mount^ — that neither priest nor people 
should ascend, except Moses and Aaron, lest 
the Lord break forth upon them. This achieve- 
ment ends with thunderings and lightnings, and 
the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain 
smoaking : — thus the parturient mountain is de- 
livered of the commandments. 

Moses again ascends the mount, v^^here he re- 
mained forty days and forty nights. He then ob- 
tains from God, permission to take from *^ every 
man, that giveth it freely with his heart," stuff 
of various kinds to dress the priest, and erect and 
furnish a sanctuary, &c. — God is very precise 
in every particular relative to the ark, and the 
mercy-seat, and the cherubims ; " And the che- 
rubims shall stretch forth their wings on high, 
covering the mercy-seat with their wings,'* &c. 
Yet according to the third commandment, " thou 
shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or 
any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above," 
&c. To be sure, as laws do not bind the king, 
the commandments should not countervail the 
king of kings. There is also a specification of 
the table, and the furniture thereof, and of the 
candlestick, and the instruments thereof: this 
chapter ends, " and look, that you mark them 
after their pattern, which was shown you in the 
mount**— this surely is the original of the moun- 
tain in labour. 

Some have thought, that these, and the like 
details, were unworthy of God. — Oh ! no, says 



31 

the Christian Advocate, Mr. D'Oily, '*' thus to in- 
terfere minutely in apparently trivial concerns, 
is not inconsistent with the dignity of so great 
a being/' (p. 47) and this he afterwards calls an 
extraordinary providence. Such minutiae in a 
theocracy were of the last importance, therefore 
they occupy three chapters, while the laws are 
contained in two. Besides the habiHments, ri- 
tual, &c. are repeatedly resumed, and in the 
SOth chapter of Exodus, the Lord having given 
a recipe for making a holy perfume, ends, " who- 
soever shall make like unto that, to smell thereto, 
shall even be cut off from his people." 

In chapter 32, the people oblige Aaron to 
make them a golden calf. On this, the Lord's 
rage waxes hot. Moses prays, and the Lord 
repents. Moses burns the calf, pulverizes it, 
and makes the children of Israel drink it in 
water. This was the real presence with a ven- 
geance, yet all dilletanti must pity this calf, 
which may be termed the Adam and Eve of the 
statuary department of the fine arts. 

The Hebrews for this offence, being first made 
naked by Aaron, Moses calls on all those to 
come to him, who are on the Lord's side, that is, 
who are in opposition to the calf; then all the 
sons of Levi gather themselves to him, " and 
he said unto them, thus said the Lord God of 
Israel, put every man his sword by his side, and 
go in and out from gate to gate throughout the 
camp, and slay every man his brother, and every 



man bis companion, and every man his neigh- 
bour. And the children of Israel did as Moses 
ordered them, and there fell of the people that 
day, about 3,000.'* After this excellent ser- 
vice, the Levites of course were appointed to 
minister to the God of the Hebrews. Moses 
entered the Tabernacle,^ " and the Lord spake 
unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh to a 
friend.'* Yet Moses expresses a wish to see 
God's face, this is denied ; but God says, '^ thou 
shalt see my back-parts, but my face shall not 
be seen." 

The last six chapters of Exodus consist in a 
repetition of theological points. And the first 
nine chapters of Leviticus indulge in the same 
sovereign curiosities. The Hebrews must not 
eat the cony, nor the hare, nor swine ; but they 
may eat '^ of every flying creeping thing that 
goeth upon all four, and have legs above their 
feet to leap withal upon the ground." 

The rebellion of Korah, is ended by the earth 
absorbing city, men, and all their Gods. A 
plague destroys 14,700 Israelites for murmuring 
against Moses and Aaron. 

The Levites being substituted for the first- 
born to minister unto God flourished mightily. 
" This small tribe of Levi, which was not the 
fortieth part of the people, as the scripture com- 
putes them, had a revenue almost treble to any 
of the largest tribes," observes Jeremy Taylor, 
appropriately in his funeral sermon on the 



3S 

lord primate. Yet the self-complaisant modera- 
tion of these Levites, deserves notice; *' Where- 
fore Levi hath no part nor inheritance with his 
brethren: the Lord is his inheritance.'* 

Moses quencheth the burning of Taberah with 
one prayer, and cureth Miriam's leprosy with 
another. A man is found gathering sticks on 
the Sabbath-day, " and the Lord said unto 
Moses, let the man surely be put to death, and 
all the congregation stoned him with stones, as 
the Lord had commanded." An account fol- 
lows, of the fiery serpents, and of the fiery ser- 
pent on the pole, which is to cure the bite of 
the former, by being looked on by the bitten. 
This is fascination, and very miraculous. 

Aaron's rod ends as it began ; being planted, 
on the morrow " it brought forth buds, and 
bloom, and blossoms, and yielded almonds." 
The Glastonbury thorn was probably a sprig from 
the same tree. All know that the original stock 
was the staff of a saint. 

Israel vows, that if the Lord will deliver the 
Canaanites into his hand, he will destroy their 
cities. " And the Lord hearkened to the voice of 
Israel, and delivered up the Canaanites, and 
Israel utterly destroyed them." There is also an 
edifying chapter, in which Balaam and his ass, 
and an angel are introduced. The ass was not 
only clear-sighted, but colloquial, " the Lord 
opened the mouth of the ass, and she said unto 
Balaam," &c. I do not mention this as very 

D 



54 

imposing, for a cow, according to Dion Cassius, 
gave good advice, and a horse, in Homer, spoke. 
To be sure, Harduin (Apologie d'Homere, p. 
45), denies the resemblance of the horse of 
Achilles, and Balaam's ass. Balaam was a di- 
viner by profession, he became by easy transi- 
tion a prophet -, he prophesieth of Christ. 

The Israelites attack the Midianites, and as 
the Lord had commanded Moses, they slew all 
the males. Moses was wroth with the captains 
for sparing the women, and he ordered them to 
kill every male among the little ones, and to kill 
every woman who had known man by lying with 
him. 

In the third chapter of Deuteronomy, there is 
a relation of the conquest of Og, king of Ba- 
shan, " he only remained of the remnant of 
giants. Behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of 
iron. Is it not in Rabbath of the children of 
Ammon ? nine cubits was the length thereof." 
In this book there are two chapters of curses. 

Moses grows old, ascends Mount Nebo, and 
dies ; " and there arose not a prophet since Is- 
rael like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew 
face to face.'* 

I have now taken a cursory view of the chief 
miracles in the Pentateuch. These books were 
reputed to have been entirely the composition of 
Moses. At last it has been admitted that passages, 
part of the relation of the giant Og, could not 
have been related by him. But I cannot agree 



S5 

that the death and burial of Moses were not de- 
clared by Moses. Josephus says, that Moses 
wrote prophetically that he died, lest any one 
should venture to say, that on account of his 
extraordinary virtue he ascended to God. Antiq. 
lib. iv. c. 8. This goes far towards proving, that 
the eulogium on Moses, " he was meek above 
all men,'* is no interpolation, but praise by 
Moses of Moses; indeed, no one would have 
chosen meekness as the pre-eminent virtue of 
Moses, but Moses. The bishop of Landaff and 
others therefore abandoned this passage too 
easily. Besides, does not Christ call himself 
meek and lowly of heart. (Matt, xi.) It would 
cause the greatest danger to civilized society and 
legitimate government, and affect the vital in- 
terests of our safety and salvation, if any doubt 
should be admitted respecting the authenticity 
of the Pentateuch, and the purity of the text. 
Besides, if these were not supported at all ha- 
zards, the defence of the succeeding books 
would be a little difficult, even to those who use 
most freely the license of theologians. 

God addresses Joshua, and appoints him suc- 
cessor to Moses ; the waters of Jordan are di- 
vided. An angel appeareth to Joshua, and tells 
Joshua that he comes to be a captain of the host 
of the Lord. The angel also tells Joshua to take 
off his shoe, for he was on holy ground. Jericho 
is besieged ; the priests blow the trumpets ; " the 
wall fell down flat, so that the people went up 

d2 



36 

into the city, every man strait before him; and 
they took the city, and they utterly destroyed 
all that was in the city, both man and woman, 
young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with 
the edge of the sword ; and they burnt the city 
with fire, and all that was therein." This de- 
struction resembles an order of Tippoo Sultan, 
^^ let every living creature in it, whether man or 
woman, old or young, child, dog, cat, or any 
thing else, be put to the sword/' (Kirkpatrick, 
p. 114.) Tippoo wrote a history of his own 
reign, and intitled it, " The History of the God- 
gifted Government." Yet extermination, which 
was ferocious in Tippoo, was divine in Joshua, 
for it is expressly stated after this sweeping de- 
struction; " So the Lord was with Joshua.*' 

Five kings war against Gibeon. Joshua res- 
cueth it. God fighteth against them with hail- 
stones. Timagenes speaks of showers of small- 
shot, aeneis guttis, (Strabo, lib. 15), on a similar 
occasion. 

^' Then spake Joshua to the Lord, in the day 
when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before 
the children of Israel ; and he said in the sight 
of Israel, sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and 
thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon. And the 
sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the 
people had avenged themselves upon their ene- 
mies." This some think would have deranged 
the universe ; and suppose it had, could not God 
rectify the disturbance. Some have also said. 



37 

the statement supposes that the sun travels, and 
that the earth is stationary. Yet why should 
Joshua know more than the king of Siam, who 
asked the French missionaries, if the sun of India 
was the same as the sun of Europe. (Le Compters 
Memoirs of China, p. 487.) I admit that the 
heresy of Galileo is now orthodoxy, but what 
then ? Why might not the sun in those primeval 
times have been locomotive; that it was so is 
probable : the change to its present state was 
clearly in contemplation when the beginning of 
the year was changed, (Exod. xii.), and this 
change I conclude was perfected about the time 
that, in consequence of the prayer of Elias, " it 
rained not on the earth by the space of three 
years and six months.*' James, v. 17. 

Joshua was a great destroyer of kings; it ap- 
pears (c. 12) that he smote at once thirty-one, 
with as much ease as in 1815 the royal race of 
Candy was extinguished by the troops of Bri- 
tain. Joshua waxes old, exhorts the people, 
telling them, one man of you shall chase a thou- 
sand. What were the heroes of Waterloo to 
the warriors of the chosen people ? 

The song of Deborah and Barak follows. De- 
borah was a prophetess, she judged Israel at that 
time ; this Te Deum concludes, ^' have they not 
sped, have they not divided the prey, to every 
man a damsel or two.'' &c. Geddes reads, " a 
couple of damsels." 

One comes to Gideon, who proves himself to 
bean angel, by striking fire out of a rock with a 



38 

stick. Gideon is encouraged by the dream of 
the barley cake, and he conquers in conse- 
quence. 

An angel cometh to Manoah. Who knows 
him to be an angel ; " for it came to pass, when 
the flame went toward heaven from off the altar, 
that the angel of the Lord ascended in the flame 
of the altar." 

Of Sampson's prowess little need be said, and 
his dexterity was not less than his strength: " he 
caught three hundred foxes, and took fire-brands 
and turned them tail to tail, and put a fire-brand 
in the midst, between two tails. And when he 
had set the brands on fire, he let them go into 
the standing corn of the Philistines, and burnt 
up both the shocks, and also the standing corn, 
with vineyards and olives." He destroyed a 
thousand men with the jaw-bone of an ass ; lifted 
up the pillars of a house, and overset thousands; 
^' so the dead which he slew at his death, were 
ntore than they which he slew in his life." 

And thrice he routed all his foes. 
And thrice he slew the slain. 

From Judges I pass to I. Samuel ; in this 
book, the Lord smiteth the people for looking 
into the ark, '^ even he smote of the people 
fifty thousand and threescore and ten men." 

La plus froide fiction 
Marquee au coin sacre de la religion, 
Des sots admirateurs dont la terre foisonne 
Frappe Vimagination. 



39 

Samuers sons disgrace their office, as is cus- 
tomary with hereditary officers. The people in 
consequence, request a king. Samuel would 
dissuade them, by telling them the manner of a 
king j that he would force them to serve in his 
wars, and to minister to his luxury — that he 
would take the tenth of their seed, and their 
fields, &c. — for monarchy was not among the 
idolatries of the Jews. Jotham's parable, the 
best of all parables, compares a king among his 
people, to a briar amidst fig-trees and vines, and 
olives and cedars. The Hebrews were griev- 
ously vexed by the judges, and in desperation, 
the usual motive for adopting monarchy, they 
demanded a king. 

Saul is elected to royalty, being a marvellous 
tall and proper man. He is anointed, by which 
God gave him another heart, on which he pro- 
phesied ; he soon, however, formed a standing- 
army, which he called a select band, of three 
thousand men. This original king became jea- 
lous of David's exploits ; devised means to kill 
his own son Jonathan, destroyed the priests and 
witches, finally, " and now in fear, forsaken of 
God, seeketh a witch.'' This grandam of He- 
cate encouraged by Saul, raiseth up Samuel ; 
Saul is overthrown, and his sons slain. 

David removes the ark in a new cart. i\ll 
Israel play before the Lord on all manner of in- 
struments. " David dances before the Lord with 
all his might.'* Here I cannot refrain from ob- 



^ 



40 

serving a want in our established church, which 
though universally allowed to be the paragon of 
estabHshments, does not enjoy either dances or 
dancing priests, yet the Salii were psalm-singers 

and IlgUranteS, votvreq o» ^T-aPnoi ;^opgyr«» riveq etcrt Kstt 

vfjLvnrut rat ivoTTT^iuv ^£uv, (Dlon. Halicar. lib. ii.c. 70.) 
Strabo also speaks of monkeys, who danced 
on certain sacred days, '' hoc in loco diebus 
solemnibus simias saltare," &c. (lib. 13. p. 313.). 
Shall we then be satisfied in sitting, kneeling. 
Standing, lounging, and lolling } I hope not. 
I propose, that in addition to the religious so- 
cieties, another should be established, which 
should distribute the psalter together with Elliot's 
^ Governor ;* in which, cap. 2^. the author in- 
quires, " how dancing may be an introduction 
into the first moral virtue, called prudence.*' 
Let no one say that my proposal is an innova- 
tion j are not bows and curtesies authorized in 
our service, and why should not these in the 
fulness of time be extended to a complete dance. 
The Welsh jumpers should of course be ballet^ 
masters, in this cotillon theologique. I presume 
to some credit for this proposal, yet I fairly 
admit, that the Osage Indians are not without 
praise, as they have actually adopted nearly 
what I here suggest. Pike, in his travels, says 
of them, *' men and women danced indiscrimi- 
nately. They were all drest in the gayest man- 
ner; each had in his hand a small skin of some 
description 5 they frequently ran up, pointed their 



41 ' 

skins, and gave a pufF with their breath ; when 
the person blown at, whether man or woman, 
would fall, and appear to be almost lifeless, or in 
great agony, but would recover slowly, rise, and 
join in the dance : this they called their great me- 
dicine, or as I understood the word — the dance of 
religion/' What is the Dance of Death to this ? 
Does not this in the most lively manner prove 
the resurrection, of which, by the bye, there 
might be composed a grand religio-tragic dance. 
Noah and the deluge might form a minor salta- 
tion; and the whole satyric ceremonial might con- 
clude stupendously, w^ith the burning of the 
world. Fortunately, Athenaeus calls a dance pre- 
cisely by this name, xocr/^a £X7rypw<7»?. (Deipnoso^ 
phist. lib. 14. p. 629.) To return to David, 
whom we left dancing before the Lord, with all 
his might. 

David having debauched Bathsheba, requires 
Joab to place her husband, Uriah, in battle, so 
that he might be slain ; in consequence, Uriah 
fell. David is called in the sacred word, a man 
after God's own heart; he was an adulterer and 
a murderer — what then ? David honored the 
priests, he designed to build a temple ; he was a 
prophet and a king. They who would detract 
from David, ('^ yet rape and murder are n(f 
simple means,*') should remember Secretary 
Wharton's remark : 

" 111 reason they, who to the narrow line 
" Of private morals^ would a king confine," 



42 

Matters are greatly improved since the days of 
Israel, now the king can do no wrong. The 
Daniel of our days talks of adultery in a lord in 
waiting, as a misfortune ; and our priests are as 
loyal as our judges; there is no Nathan to tell 
the representative of David, THOU art THE 
MAN. Uriah is not now sent to battle to be 
slain, he with his wife both officiate in the king's 
chamber. 

David and his servants kill four giants, who 
were born to the giant in Gath, yet we had been 
told, four or five centuries before, that Og was 
the last of the giants. These giants destroyed 
by David were a curious race, they had six 
fingers and as many toes. Megasthenes speaks 
of eight-toed men ; these were of Og's family, 
perhaps; — the elder of all things being the more 
wonderful. 

David sings a Te Deum; he numbers the 
people — this enrages God, who offers him his 
choice, either of a seven years* famine, or of a 
plague, for his offence. A pestilence invades 
Israel, and there died of the people 70,000. 
David stayeth the plague by building an altar 
on a threshing floor, and by burnt-offerings. 

In I. Kings, we read of king Solomon, " and 
tjtie Lord gave Solomon wisdom, as he promised 
him.** His wisdom is not very obvious in his 
seven hundred wives and three hundred concu- 
bines 5 nor in his idolatry ; but he redeemed all by 
his riches, and by the magnificent temple which 



m 



43 

he built. The measurement of this temple is 
preserved ; if we calculate its dimensions by the 
common cubit, it was 120 feet long, by 30 
wide; or if we calculate by the sacred cubit, 
which was double, St. Paul's church, in London, 
is twice as long and more than four times as 
broad. Yet this temple cost, according to Pri- 
deaux's calculation, 1,1175000,000/. sterling in 
gold and silver only. Here is miracle on miracle. 
This sum expended by the wise Solomon, on 
comparatively a small temple, was fourteen times 
more than all the precious metals in circulation 
in France, when Necker was minister. Bor- 
richius sagaciously attributes Solomon's treasures 
to the philosopher's stone. I may here remark 
the marvellous disparity in several calculations 
concerning the time from the exode to the build- 
ing of Solomon's temple. In our English* 
Bibles it is set down at 480 years, yet Petavius 
computes it at 520 years, Vossius at 580, Ser- 
rarius at 680, Vignols at 683, Pezron at 873. 
This diversity is wonderful, considering the 
sacred character of the text and the great cu- 
riosity of the priests in preserving it. 

I shall briefly enumerate a few more miracles 
in the Old Testament, and pass to the New. 
Jeroboam is withered by a prophet for his vio- 
lence, and restored by the same; yet this pro- 

* Yet, St. Paul, in Acts, xiii. computes from the exode to 
Saul's death only, 530 years. 



44 

piiet is outwitted by another prophet. Elijah k 
fed by ravens. Elijah has a trial of skill with 
850 prophets of Baal and prophets of the groves. 
They cannot roast their ox without fire, which 
Elijah does. — Elijah twice destroys a captain and 
fifty men, by fire from heaven. — Elijah goes up 
in a whirlwind into heaven. Elisha has forty 
and two children torn to pieces by the she-bears, 
for calling him bald-head. A dead man revives 
on touching the bones of Elisha. 

Isaiah prophesieth, and " it came to pass that 
night, that the angel of the Lord went out and 
smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred 
four score and five thousand. And when they 
arose they were all dead men.'* — Was this typical 
or prophetic of the resurrection— surely it was 
miraculous. 

Good king Hezekiah, who was a great bene- 
factor of the priests, prays for prolonged life, and 
fifteen years are added to his existence. Heze- 
kiah requires a sign from the Lord. Isaiah 
answers, *^ the sign shalt thou have of the Lord, 
that the Lord will do the thing that he hath 
spoken. Shall the shadow (on the dial) go for- 
ward ten degrees, or go back ten degrees.'' The 
good king required the latter, of course it hap- 
pened. And here mark the power of a Hebrew 
prophet, who twirls sun or earth as a school-boy 
does the hands of a penny watch ; he moves the 
earth at the rate of ten degrees in a second, yet 
the obliquity of the ecliptic cannot be more than 



45 

one degree in sixty centuries. This whole ac- 
count has a parallel in Pagan story, which proves 
beyond doubt that the Greeks were studious cul- 
tivators of the Jewish scriptures. lolans, ac- 
cording to Euripides, when decrepid by age, be- 
came young and strong, in consequence of a 
prayer (Plutarch Mor. p. 237.); and the rising 
and setting of the sun were reversed as a sign to 
Atreus. Socrates, who was a freethinker and a 
philosopher, treats this as a fable (Plato, Politicus, 
p. 535). 

Nebuchadnezzar dreamed a dream, which he 
forgot ; magicians, astrologers, and sorcerers, are 
required to shew him his dream ; as they cannot 
satisfy the king's desire, they are condemned to 
die. Daniel proposes to tell the king his dream : 
he then prays that God would reveal it to him, 
which is performed in a night-vision. He then 
tells the king his dream, " and the same hour 
was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar, 
and he was driven from men, and did eat grass 
as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of 
heaven, till his hair was grown like eagles* 
feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.** 

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, are thrown 
into a fiery furnace^ these three salamanders, 
p?'o tempore, become four ; they walk out of the 
furnace, " neither was a hair of their head singed, 
neither were their coats changed, nor the smell 
of fire passed on them.** 

Daniel is cast into the lions' den, but God 



46 

sent his angel and shut the lions' mouth, so that 
they did not hurt him. Thus Tacitus (Histor. 
lib. ii. c. 61.) says, Marcius was thrown to wild 
beasts, and because he was not destroyed by 
them, the stupid vulgar believed the impostor. 
So much for the prophet of the seventy weeks. 

Jonah is sent to Nineveh by the Lord, but 
fleeth to Tarshish ; a storm arises — Jonah is 
thrown overboard by the crew. " Now the 
Lord had prepared a great fish * to swallow up 
Jonah ; and Jonah was in the belly of the fish 
three days and three nights^ then Jonah prayed 
unto the Lord his God out of the fishes belly," 
&c. ;— " and the Lord spake unto the fish, and it 
vomited out Jonah upon the dry land." We 
shall find hereafter Christ intimating his own re- 
surrection, by this abdominal residence and ex- 
pectoration ; indeed, this miracle has the power 
of generating endless wonders. Dr. D. Clarke, 
in his travels, (vol. ii. p. 642) makes Jonah em- 
bark at Joppa, for Nineveh, which is some hun- 
dred miles distant from any sea. 



* What fish ? probably '' a ravenous salt-sea shark,"' men- 
tioned by one of Shakspeare's witches. , 



47 

CHAP. II. 

Miracles of the New Testament. 

Having taken a cursory view of some of the 
leading miracles, for it would require a volume 
almost equal to the antiquated tome itself, to 
display them all, I proceed to the miracles of the 
New Testament, which are involved by re- 
ference and imputation with those of the old, as 
the Christian religion is intricately confounded 
with the Mosaic. 

Matthew begins, " the book of the generation of 
Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abra- 
ham," &c. ; and a genealogy is then traced from 
Abraham '^ to Joseph, the husband of Mary, of 
whom was born Jesus, who is called Christ.'* 
This genealogy is pursued evidently to connect 
the descent of Jesus with David ^ of whom, in 
the first verse of Matthew, he is said to be the 
son, though in a subsequent verse, of the same 
chapter, it is affirmed that Christ was not Joseph^s 
son ; now the birth of Jesus Christ was in this 
wise : when as his mother Mary was espoused to 
Joseph before they came together, she was found 
with child of the Holy Ghost." Another ge- 
nealogy is given in Luke of this divine personage, 
which multiplies and confounds generations and 
names, as if the relation of Matthew was not 
sufficiently wonderful and contradictory : I shall 



48 

therefore end this most miraculous part of the 
subject, by saying, as Paul said to Timothy, 
(Epist. i. 4) " neither give heed to fables and 
endless genealogies^ which nourish questions, ra- 
ther than godly edifying, which is in faith/' 

But it may be inquired, for what purpose was 
this double paternity adopted, which in effect, 
by multiplying the parentage of Jesus, left Jesus 
fatherless. Simply because Jesus and his ghost- 
ly confederates were persuaded that they had 
no prospect of being recognized by the Jews, 
unless they created a lineage for Jesus from 
David ; and as this heritable title was question- 
able, the miracle of a pregnant virgin was ad- 
vanced as ancillary to it, which, while it saved 
Mary's character, had she been frail, raised her 
son to the rank of the pagan demi-gods. 

Jesus being born, Herod, King of Judea, in 
consequence of prophecies, fears that Jesus will 
evict him of his kingdom. A relation follows of 
the wise men and the star, and the dream, and the 
passage into Egypt,* and the murder of the In- 
nocents. When Herod died, an angel of the 
Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream ; that is, he 
dreamed a dream, on which he returned with 
the young child to Israel. 

* A good deal of this came from Egypt, when Osyris (who 
preceded Jesus) was born, a voice was heard ; saying, that 
the master saviour of all was come to light, nut (puvviv avra 
r9x^£pr% ffvnK^tffnv «? a,itoi,ntif nvfw^ e»5 (pu^ 9rfo«rs»7»p. Plu- 
tarch de Isid. et Osyre Moral. 



49 

" And the child grew, and waxed strong in 
spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God 
was upon him. Now his parents went to Jerusa- 
lem every year at the feast of the passover ; and 
when he was twelve* years old, they went to 
Jerusalem.'' They returned, and proceeded a 
whole day's journey, without noticing that their 
child, the son of God, was left behind. (For the 
credit of his parents, this whole story depends on 
Luke's report.) They re-return, — " and it came 
to pass, that after three days, they found him in 
the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, 
both hearing them and asking them questions ; 
and all that heard him, were astonished at his 
understanding and answers." This I do not 
mention as miraculous, for it is a very subdued 
relation of precocious talents. Indeed less could 
not be said, even of a prophet. Zoroaster, whom 
Hide (Hist. Vet. Per. p. 314) and Prideaux 
(Connexions, vol. i. p. 213) insist, was a ser- 
vant in a house of one of the Jewish prophets, 
laughed on the day he was born 5 and his brain 
throbbed, which was indicative of his future sa- 
gacity. Plinius, Hist. Nat. lib. vii. c. 16. Apol- 
lonius of Tyana was a prodigy in his youth, even 
to a proverb, tto* Tp£%£K ett* rov itpn^ov. (Philostratus 
Apol. Vita, lib. i. c. 9.) After this unsupported 



* Mrs. Graham saw *' Ganesa incarnate in the person of 
a boy twelve years old at Chemcore." He was not disputing 
with braoiins, but attended on by them. 

E 



50 

statement of vague ability during three days, 
when he was opportunely lost, nothing is known of 
Jesus for many years ; and it is generally agreed, 
that this son of the Holy Ghost lived until about 
his 30th year, a working carpenter with Joseph. 
John baptized Christ, '' and,lo I the heavens were 
opened upon him, and he saw the spirit of God 
descending like a dove, and lighted upon him. 
And, lo ! a voice from heaven, saying, this is my 
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased.** It 
is odd that ojih/ begotten was not added, as Plu- 
tarch remarks. Homer unites beloved with only 

begotten son 0/AV5po5 «ya9r»jTo» viq» e»o/ita^ej f^a^oM TJjA«y6To». 

Moral, p. 57. 

'' Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the 
wilderness, to be tempted of the devil j and when 
he had fasted * forty days, and forty nights, he 
was afterward an hungered." To subsist forty 
days at once without food, is as great a miracle 
perhaps, as the fasting of Arjoon,f who,' by starv- 
ing himself from four to eight days, and so on> 
was eventually enabled '' to stand immovable 
on the toe of a single leg, inhaling the air as 
his only food." 

Into what wilderness was Jesus led to be tempt- 



* Would that the committee for trying Ann Moore of Tut- 
bury, who fasted, she said, for six years, had been in the wil- 
derness. Ann had always the Bible open before her. In 
the Annual Register for 1763, there are similar accounts. 

t Appendix to Graham's India, p. 207. 



t 



ed of the devil ? On this, theologians are much 
divided. What devil was his leader? Wier, in 
his Monarchie Diabolique, counts 572 princes of 
devils, and of the inferior sort many millions; 
and from their numbers and business in the New- 
Testament, he seems to have underrated them. 
Jesus being tempted of the devil in the wilder- 
ness, and having miraculously resisted, '^ Then 
the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and 
setteth him on a pinnacle O) the temple:" he 
there tries a second temptation, and fails. '^ And 
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high 
mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of 
the world, and the glory of them : and saith un- 
to him, all these things will I give thee, if thou 
wilt fall down and worship me." A very high 
mountain truly, and far superior to Pelion on 
Ossa, or even Teneriffe on Chimborazo; and 
observe how absurd those are, who imagine that 
the earth is spherical ; for if so, how could all, or 
any considerable extent of the kingdoms of the 
earth be exhibited from one station. ^' Then 
the devil leaveth him, and behold angels came 
and ministered to him." 

Jesus in beginning his ministry, saw some 
fishermen. '^ And he saith unto them, follow 
me, and I will make you fishers of men." And 
Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in the 
synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the 
kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness, 
and all manner of disease among the people," 
E 2 



52 

kc. Thus Christianity began, as have most 
other religions; for prophets have always taken 
out their diploma for divining, not from Doctors' 
Commons, but from the college of physicians. 

After the sermon Christ cured a leper; in this 
he was equally favored with the Hebrew priests, 
who understood the leprosy and its signs and 
tokens, and also other diseases. (Levit. xiii. and 
seq.) But it is remarkable, that Christ having 
cured the leper, desired him, " see thou tell no 
man," kc. (Matth. viii. 4.) Such a request of 
secrecy is sometimes craftily made, in order to 
urge the publication of a tale; and though re- 
specting the sequel, Matthew is silent, Mark 
states that this was the consequence of the in- 
junction, '^ but he went out and began to publish 
it much," &c. ; and the same effects followed, re- 
peatedly,* the same requests of Jesus, 



* " And their eyes were opened, and Jesus straitly charg- 
ed them saying, see that no man know it. But they, when they 
were departed, spread abroad his fame in all that country." 
Matth. xi. 30, 31. — And again of the dumb men ; " but the 
more he charged them, so much the more a great deal they 
pubhshed it." Mark, vii. 36.~Jesus seems to have known 
human nature v/ell, if he wished to have it pubhshed, or ill, 
if he did not. — Why should he not have it published; he had 
pubhckly performed miracles before he evinced such secrecy. 
Christ however varied his command in this respect, as the per- 
son out of whom he cast Legion, he directed : " Go home to 
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath 
done for thee ;" and Mark, v. 19. 



53 

Christ and his disciples go on-board a ship; 
the storm rages; his disciples are alarmed and 
awake him, ^' saying, Lord, save lis, we perish; 
and he saith unto them, Why are ye fearful, O 
ye of little faith? then he arose and rebuked the 
winds and the sea, and there was a great calm." 

In the country of the Gergesenes, *' there met 
him two possessed with devils, coming out of the 
tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that no man might 
pass by that w^ay. And behold they cried out, 
saying, what have we to do with thee, Jesus thou 
son of God? art thou come hither to torment us 
before the time ? And there was a good way off 
from them, a herd of swine feeding:" in short, 
Jesus drove the devils out of the men, and the 
devils by Christ*s permission, took refuge in the 
herd of swine ; ^^ and behold, the whole herd of 
swine ran violently down a steep place into the 
sea, and perished in the waters;"* silly pigs, 
and silly devils ! This miracle in Matthew of 
two men possessed, is only one man in Luke; 
in the latter, the diabolical confederacy signifies 
his name; *' Legion, for we are many." Luke's 
account agrees with Mark's; but it is to be noted, 
that Mark computes the herd of swine at about 
*^ two thousand :" this congeries of devils in one 
body, shews that the schoolmen who comput- 



* Christ said that, •'■ when the unclean spirit is gone out 
of a man, he walketh in dry places;" and Matth. xii. 43, not 
in this instance. 



54 

ed how many angels, or devils, could dance on 
the point of a needle without jostling, were not 
so over-curious as some persons, tainted with mo- 
dern philosophy, sneeringly remark. After this, 
it would be trifling to ask, why 2,000 pigs were 
fortunately collected in one place among a pork- 
hating people; and it is undecided, I believe, 
who indemnified the swine-keepers for their loss. 
This is a great miracle, and shews the superi- 
ority of a prophet to a sorcerer, or even a sor- 
ceress. Circe only transformed men into swine, 
(Odyssey, lib. x. v. 236) but Christ conjured 
devils into pigs, and made one submersion 
drown both. 

Christ cures by touching the sick, and by the 
sick touching him, and by neither touching the 
other. ^^ Thy faith hath made thee whole." And 
no doubt, he or she who believes in the sanative 
power of a miracle, is near convalescence. He 
feeds a multitude, who sat down by hundreds, and 
by fifties, with 5 loaves and 2 fishes. Yet as if it 
were not sufficiently miraculous, that these loaves 
and ^i^\\e?> filled 5,000 men; it is superadded, that 
the residue filled 12 baskets full. Now Elisha 
only satisfied 100 men with twenty loaves ; and 
if Elisha made iron swim, Jesus out-did this also, 
as appears by what follows. Jesus despatched 
his disciples in a ship ; in the mean time he went 
into a mountain to pray; returning to the shore, 
he perceived the ship had put to sea, as he might 
have expected, ^' and he saw them toiling in 



55 

rawing, (for the wind was contrary unto them) 
and about the fourth watch of the night, he 
Cometh unto them walking upon the sea, and 
would have passed by them." It appears then 
Jesus went to pray into the mountain, purposely 
that he might have an opportunity of taking a 
walk on the sea. Vidar, the 9th God in the Ed- 
da, walks on the sea, and also on the air. (Mal- 
let, Antiq. vol. ii. p. 60) 

Let no one suppose that I am indisposed to 
believe this miracle of walking on the sea, (Ca- 
milla ran dry-foot over the billows) or any 
other, by referring to parallel exertions. Mira- 
cles confessedly were no monopoly of the pro- 
phets, and the disciples of the true faith. The 
sorcerers of Pharaoh performed miracles, so did 
the prophets of Baal. Apollonius performed 
miracles, which the holy Fathers of the Church 
attributed to the assistance of demons. Vespa- 
sian cured a blind man, and gave another the 
use of his arm, (Dion Cassius, lib. Ixvi. c. 8) and 
on this occasion, the Alexandrians honoured 
him as a God. In like manner the kings of 
Scotland so early as 1206, healed the scrofula 
by the sign of the cross, (Dalrymple's Annals) 
as did our own kings cure thousands of the same 
disease, which miracles they continued to per- 
form till lately, when the patentee venders of 
panaceas interfered with the sanative preroga- 
tive royal. Does not Josephus say that he saw 
Eleazar releasing demoniacs in the presence of 



56 

Vespasian and his army : he states the manner 
of the cure. Eleazar put a ring, with a root re- 
sembling the instrument mentioned by Solomon, 
to the nostrils of the possessed, and with this he 
drew the demon out of the nostrils. (Josephus, 
lib. viii. c. 2.) How many published their con- 
fidence in the efficacy of Perkins's metallic trac- 
tors, and in one list of ten names, five of the sub- 
scribers were clergymen. 

Miracles were never considered as solely re- 
served for the teachers of the true religion, they 
have been used by impostors, by idiots, by 
priests, regular and dissenting; the catholic 
church has its exorcists, and Hobhouse says, 
^^ there are now in Greece, many BnpyoviJLsvoi, or 
possessed, and the exorcising of these unfortu- 
nate* persons is a frequent and profitable em- 
ployment for the priests." (Travels, p. 528) 
Wesley believed in. visions, dreams, miraculous 
cures, and providential interference on the most 
frivolous occasions. Whitfield was equally ge- 
nerous in his faith : he said, " do not condemn 
me for preaching extempore, or for saying I am 
helped immediately in that exercise, when thou- 



* He says, they work themselves into a belief that they are 
so afflicted. It is a sort of hypochondria ; men have thought 
themselves glass, and they feared to be broken to pieces; 
others that they were millet, and feared the chickens would 
pick them up. These caprices and frauds, such as that prac- 
tised by the reputed Cock Lane ghost, and the boy Bilson, 
might illustrate the sacred text. 



57 

sands can prove as well as myself, that it has 
been so." As to miracles performed, that is, 
marvels testified, the Methodist Magazine dis- 
plays an edifying and alarming series. Thus it 
appears, that to work miracles, has always been 
considered a common privilege, because impos- 
ture and credulity are general. Gods and de- 
vils, angels and imps, prophets and sorcerers^ 
kings and priests, have all been accredited won- 
der-workers : and for opposite purposes, proving 
at once truth and reality, and substantiating il- 
lusions and nonsense. Yet I of course agree 
with Paley who asks ^^ now in what way can a 
revelation be made but by miracles ? In no one 
which we are able to conceive." (Evidences of 
Christianity, vol. iii.) The divine nature of Christ's 
ministry, then, was most properly, and could 
only effectually be proved by miracles. Natural 
religion is taught by God's laws, manifest to all 
observing rational men, and conducted with re- 
gularity; but Christianity, being a revealed and 
therefore an unnatural religion, is proved by mi- 
racles, which are believed in consequence of that 
stupendous faith, which not only moves moun- 
tains, but which outspreads the globe into one 
plain, stops tjie celestial courses, and deprives 
the elements of their energy, attributes, and being. 
- Though this is agreed, and miracles are divine 
arguments for the truth of Christ's embassy from 
God; it is a little perplexing, why Christ should 
refuse miraculous signs, Avhen they were de- 



ss 

manded of him ; and why he should refuse a sign 
to the Pharisees and Sadducees, is still more 
questionable, saying, " a wicked and adulterous 
generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall 
be no sign given unto it, but the sign of the 
prophet Jonas." Yet adidtery, on another occa- 
sion, was treated by him with the greatest mild- 
ness, " neither do I condemn thee, go thy way, 
and sin no more," (John, viii. 11) was his only 
reproof to a woman caught in adultery. Their 
wickedness also, according to Christ's own words, 
should have induced him to have particularly ap- 
plied the proofs of his mission to affect their be- 
lief; for when the Scribes and Pharisees murmur- 
ed against him and his disciples for eating and 
drinking with publicans and sinners, he replied, 
*^ they that are whole need not a physician, but 
they that are sick : I came not to call the righte- 
ous, but sinners to repentance." 

It appears also passing strange, that Jesus 
should not exercise his miraculous talents in his 
own country ; the whole passage is curious, '' and 
when he was come into his own country, he taught 
them in the synagogue, insomuch that they 
were astonished, and said, whence hath this man 
this wisdom, and these mighty works, is not this 
the carpenter's son? And his brethren James, 
and Joses, and Simon, and Judas, and his sis- 
ters, are they not with us ? Whence hath this 
man all these things ? And they were offended 
in him. But Jesus said unto them, a prophet 



S9 

is not without honour, save in his own country,* 
and in his own house. And he did not many 
mighty works there, because of their unbeHef.'* 
This seems contradictory, they were astonished 
at his mighty works^ yet he did not wMuy jnighty 
works. And why not ? '^ Because of their unbe- 
heV* Besides, this is the reverse of what might 
be expected ; for as mighty works were the in- 
ducements of behef, one would conjecture that 
he should have multiplied them in proportion to 
the difficulty he encountered in making an im- 
pression on their belief. It appears, however, 
that Christ, as persons were unprejudiced in his 
favour, circumscribed the mightiness of his ex- 
ploits; yet this was not his original mode of 
proceeding, as Jesus did " upbraid the cities 
wherein m,ost of his mighty zvorks were done, be- 
cause they repented not.'' Matt. xi. SO. 

It is also strange that he was not more enter- 
prising in favour of his countrymen, and those of 
his own house. Humanly speaking, this doea 
not appear friendly or patriotic. Yet this ab- 
stinence of zeal on his own part seems to have 
been the effect of an inaptitude to believe, not 
unaccountable on the part of his countrymen. 
Christ's ministry began by being completely Ju- 



* Apollonius was. (Philostratus Epistola, p. 396.) So have 
thousands. Yet it did not succeed with Jesus, and the first 
miracle recorded in John, of his doing, was his turning water 
into wine, at the marriage in his own country, ii, 11. vii. 4L 



60 

daic; he is prophetically called a governor that 
shall rule my people Israel (Matt. ii. 6) ; and 
when he was sending abroad his apostles, he said 
to them, " go not into the way of the Gentiles, 
and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, 
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel,*' (Matt. x. 5). Again, to a woman of 
Canaan who came to him to cure her daughter, 
" he answered her not a word, and his disciples 
came and besought him, saying, send her away, 
for she crieth after us 5 but he answered and said, 
I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the 
house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped 
him, saying, Lord, help me, but he answered and 
said, it is not meet to take the children's bread 
and cast it to dogs." (Matt, xv,) 

It seems, then, that the original design was 
Jewish, that the Jews being tried and found in- 
credulous, and unapt to change, they having 
an established clergy, and creeds, and ordinan- 
ces, and ceremonies, the Gentiles were resorted 
to, who had few priests, and no dogmas, and su- 
perabundant faith. 

That the countrymen and the relations of Je- 
sus were not convinced by Jesus or his miracles, 
is stated on authority beyond all cavil. (John, 
xii. 37). They contemned him, as is fully ex- 
pressed in Mark, '' and he could there do no 
mighty work, save that he laid his hands on a 
few sick folk, and healed them." (vi. 5.) Such 
were the opinions of the kindred and countrymen 



61 

of Jesus, and of his miracles: feeble indeed was 
their influence, when Jesus was so surprised at 
the centurion's belief, that he could not refrain 
from saying to those that followed, ^^ verily I 
say unto you, I have not found so great faith, 
no, not in Israel." Matt. viii. 10. 

That some believed, there can be no doubt, 
he would be unfortunate who should act the 
wonder-worker, and not have confederates and 
devotees. Simon Magus bewitched the people 
of Samaria. (Acts, viii. 8). Alexander, the false 
prophet, had a very numerous cortege ^ and 
Muggleton and Swedenburgh have as many- 
believers as would constitute a numerous church. 
In England, James Naylor had many believers, 
and his trial for blasphemy is worthy of being 
read by all who are curious in the illusions and 
credulity of mankind; so had Brothers respect- 
able followers ; and Southcott counted a host of 
believers 40,000 strong. Christ of course had 
his disciples and believers among the Jews, but 
they were in every respect the most contempti- 
ble of mankind. The inventors of the sect of 
the Nazarenes, afterwards Christians, applied 
particularly for converts to those burdened with 
sin. (Matt, x.) They were paltry individuals, 
such as, according to the Chinese Emperor, the 
missionaries now attempt to seduce in his empire, 
" simple peasantry and women.'' Staunton's Chi- 
nese Code, p. 533. Indeed Jesus intimates 
nearly as much, '' I thank thee, father of heaven 



6^ 

and earth, because thou hast hid these things 
from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed 
them to babes/* (Matt.) " They were wretched 
in their circumstances, being actually in a great 
degree supported by charity. (Paul, I. Cor. xvi., 
ibid, Romans, xv.) In short, the first Christian 
converts suit the character of their modern suc- 
cessors in the east. Sir J. Malcolm says, *^ the 
great mass of the Christians in India, are the 
very dregs of the community.'* (Polit. Hist. Ind. 
p. 470.) The progress of this sect or religion 
among the Jews, was inconsiderable ; yet Jesus, 
as I have stated, regarded at first entirely the 
lost sheep of the house of Israel, and first and 
last, he always preferred their interests before 
all nations. Nor was it till after his putative re- 
surrection that Christianity was proposed for 
general use; after that it is said, Jesus desired 
the apostles to preach his name to all nations ; 
yet even then, he superadded, " beginning at 
Jerusalem." (Luke, xxiv. 47.) Paul also said, 
that *' the Gospel is the power of God unto 
salvation, to ewery one that believeth, to the 
Jew first, and also to the Greek.'* (Romans, i. 
16). Paul did all in his power to win the Jews; 
he says, '' I became to the Jews as a Jew, that 
I might gain the Jews.** (I. Corin. ix. 20). It 
appears, that he had Timotheus, a Greek, cir- 
cumcised, " because of the Jews, which were in 
these qu^arters,** who was employed to conciliate 
these Jews. (Acts, xvi. 3.) All this had little in- 



63 

fluence. Paul was opposed by them, and he 
left them, saying, " from henceforth I will go 
unto the Gentiles." (Acts, xviii. 6.) And Paul 
and Barnabas, again repelled by the Jews, de- 
clared, " we turn to the Gentiles,'* that is, the 
home market being shut, they carried their 
wares abroad. This opposition to Paul and his 
associates, does not seem to have been made by 
the vagabond beggarly class, but by the higher 
orders. '^ And the word of the Lord was pub- 
lished throughout all the region. But the Jews 
stirred up the devout and honourable women, 
and the chief men of the city, and raised perse- 
cution against Paul and Barnabas, and expelled 
them out of their coasts.'* (Acts, xiii. 50.) 
Whatever was the cause, the design of Christ 
and the apostles failed ^ their pretensions, and 
miracles, the proofs of a divine mission, had as 
little effect on the intelligent part of the Jews, 
as Paul had on the Roman governor, who thought 
Paul mad ; or on the Stoics and Epicureans, 
who agreed that Paul was a babbler. (Acts, xvii.) 
But what is still more extraordinary, the mira- 
cles performed by Chrst, had a very imperfect 
operation on Christ's disciples. In Luke, chap, 
v., he likens some of them to dirty bottles, and 
old clothes ; and in John, vi. 66, it is stated, 
^' from that time many of his disciples went back, 
and walked no more with him ;" that is, there 
was a defection of his disciples, notwithstanding 
the miracles he had performed before them. 



' 64 

There are numerous relations of the want of 
faith in Christ by his disciples. When on board 
a ship in a storm, Jesus rebuked them, *' Oh ! 
ye of little faith." Again, Peter sees Jesus walk- 
ing on the sea ; on this Peter steps out on the 
water to meet Jesus — " beginning to sink, he 
cries out. Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus 
stretched forth his hand and caught him 3 and 
said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore 
didst thou doubt.*' (Matthew, xiv. 31.) This 
is told differently in Mark, but the conclusion is 
the same ; their faith was forgetful, " for they 
(his disciples) considered not the miracle of the 
loaves, for their heart was hardened." (Mark, 
vi. 52.) 

Again, the disciples had forgotten to take 
bread. " Then Jesus said unto them, take heed 
and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and 
the Sadducees. And they reasoned among them- 
selves, saying, it is because we have taken no 
bread. Which when Jesus perceived, he said unto 
them, O ye of little faith, why reason ye among 
yourselves, because ye have brought no bread ? 
Do ye not understand, neither remember the 
five loaves of the five thousand, and how many 
baskets ye took up ? neither the seven loaves of 
the four thousand, and how many baskets ye 
took up." (Matt, xvi.) Here were miracles enow 
to astound the understanding and make his dis- 
ciples believe : it appears, also, that the miracle 
of the withered fig-tree was chiefly performed to 



65 

confirm their faith. *' Behold the fig-tree, which 
thou cursedst, is withered away. And Jesus 
answering, saith unto them, have faith in God." 
(Mark, xi. 21.) Yet still they had not faith; 
and the miracles performed by Christ continued 
to make Httle impression on the memories and 
conviction of the disciples. Yet I am persuaded, 
that in this bad age, the many and the few 
would believe all that any one would assert, if 
they saw him feeding a famished rabble of thou- 
sands, with a few loaves and fishes -, and stilling 
the wind and the waters; and walking on the 
sea; and curing all manner of diseases; and 
raising the dead; and driving out talking devils 
by thousands. 

The want of confidence in Christ by his dis- 
ciples, is also evinced in various ways ; one of 
them, Judas Iscariot, betrayed him to his ene- 
mies. Peter denied him, " saying, I know not 
the man.'' (Matt. xxvi. 74.) Yet this was that 
Peter who said to Jesus, ^^ thou art Christ, the 
son of the living God ; and Jesus answered and 
said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona ; 
for flesh and blood have not revealed it unto thee, 
but my father * which is in heaven." (Matt. xvi. 
16. This was the same Peter, who beheld the trans- 



* Who revealed this to the devils. Legion accosted " Jesus, 
thou son of God." So in Mark, i. 24.— iii. 11.— v. 7.— the 
devils recognized Christ, and denominated him the son of 
God. 

F 



66 

figuration. Matt. xvii. 5, and on whom Christ 
said I will build my Church, xvi. 18. Their want 
of faith was only equalled by their want of cou- 
rage; for it does not appear that any one of 
Christ's disciples came forward to comfort and 
console him, or bear witness to him and his doc- 
trine in his distress; "all the disciples forsook 
him and fled,'* Matt. xxvi. 56. In this they sink 
beneath thousands; when Eon deTEtoile declar- 
ed that he was come to judge the quick and the 
dead, multitudes, says Mezeray, were infatuated 
by his pretensions, and many of his disciples 
chose rather to be burned to death than renounce 
him. 

Thus then we may conclude, that though the 
miracles attributed to Jesus were stupendous and 
many, they had little effect on those of his own 
house and of his own country, and on the Phari- 
sees, and on the Sadducees, and on the philoso- 
phers ; that they made little impression on the 
bulk of the Jews, and not much more on his dis- 
ciples. 

Christ was tried, convicted, and crucified ; the 
account of these particulars in the Evangelists are 
extremely incoherent. In Matthew it is said, 
" the thieves also which were crucified with him 
cast the same in his teeth." xxvii. 44. So in 
Mark, " and they that were crucified with him 
reviled." Yet in Luke, " and one of the male- 
factors which were hanged, railed on him, saying, 
if thou be Christ save thyself and us. But the 



67 

other answering, rebuked him, saying, dost thou 
not fear God, seeing that thou art in the same 
condemnation." 

On his crucifixion it is said, "^ Now from the 
sixth hour there was darkness over all the land 
unto the ninth hour." This eclipse is not men- 
tioned by other writers, yet there is no doubt of 
it^ and three hours I consider a moderate adum- 
bration for the death of the Son of the God of the 
Christians, when on the death of the son of an- 
other God, Phaeton's father withdrew his light 
for a whole day from the earth, " unum ipse diem 
sine sole ferunt." '^ And behold, the vail of the 
temple was rent in twain, from the top to the 
bottom, and the earth did quake and the rocks 
rent, and the graves were opened, and many 
bodies of saints which slept, arose and came out 
of the graves after his resurrection, and went 
into the holy city and appeared unto many." 
Matt, xxvii. Yet all these things had no more 
effect on the people in winning their belief in 
Christ, than the miracles attending the destruc- 
tion of the Christians in Palestine in the tenth 
century, had on their Mussulmen persecutors, 
when " the Bosphorus and the Nile were covered 
with ice, and earthquakes in Syria and Asia 
Minor overturned many considerable cities." 
Michaud's Crusades. 

Christ being taken from the cross, was placed 
in a tomb by Joseph, who rolled a great stone to 
the door and departed. The chief priests and 

f2 



68 

Pharisees requested that the tomb should be 
made sure : by the permission of Pilate they had 
a watch, and they sealed the tomb j this they did 
to prevent Christ's disciples from stealing away 
the body, and Matthew says, that the chief 
priests bribed the soldiers to say that the disciples 
stole him while they slept. Then such a report 
was in circulation, but of course it was false. 

Christ died, " that through death he might 
destroy him that hath the power of death ; that 
is, the Devil.*' Paul, Heb. ii. 14. This was a mira- 
culous mode of triumph. Again, Paul says, for 
this end Christ both died and rose, and revived, 
that he might be Lord both of the living and the 
dead," Paul, Romans, xiv. 9 : and this was a right 
imperial reason. 

We come now to the notification of Christ not 
being found in the tomb, which is related with 
the most candid incongruity by the Evangelists. 
Matthew mentions two Marys coming to the 
sepulchre in the morning. Luke intimates that 
it was the women who came from Galilee, who 
included, beside others, the two Marys. In 
John, Mary Magdalene only is mentioned as 
coming to the sepulchre. The relations are still 
more discordant in other respects. In Matthew 
the two Marys come to see the sepulchre, and 
an earthquake is felt : '^ for the angel of the 
Lord descended from heaven, and came and 
rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon 
it : his countenance was like lightning, and his 



69 

raiment white as snow.'* In Mark^ the two 
Marys come to the sepulchre ; *^ and they said 
unto themselves, who shall roll away the stone 
from the door of the sepulchre (and when they 
looked they saw that the stone was rolled away) 
for it was very great. And entering into the 
sepulchre they saw a young man sitting on the 
right side, clothed in along white garment,'* &c. 
In Luke, it is said, *^ and they found the stone 
rolled away from the sepulchre. And they en- 
tered in, and found not the body of the Lord 
Jesus ; and it came to pass, as they were much 
perplexed thereabout, behold, two men stood by 
them in shining garments.'* In John, Mary 
Magdalene only is mentioned as coming to the 
sepulchre ; seeing the stone taken away from the 
sepulchre she ran in consternation to Peter and 
John, and they returned according to their speed 
to the sepulchre. The disciples enter the sepul- 
chre, who do not see Christ's body. *' Then the 
disciples went away again unto their home, but 
Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping 5 
and as she wept, she stooped down and looked 
into the sepulchre, and seeth two angels in white 
sitting, the one at the head and the other at the 
feet where the body of Jesus had lain." The 
Bishop of LandafF says, that the last account of 
one Mary being mentioned, though in the others 
two are stated to have come to the sepulchre, is 
no disagreement. And he asks, in his Apology 
for the Bible, '* is it an unusual thing to distinguish 



70 

by name a principal person going on a visit or 
an embassy, without mentioning his subordinate 
attendants.'* Then Mary Magdalene was the 
principal person in this visit or embassy, and the 
other Mary was a person in John's estimation 
subordinate. Nor is it improbable that the 
reformed Mary should be honoured as prime in 
rank, from the well-known greater satisfaction in 
one repentant sinner over ninety and nine just 
persons. The other objections the Bishop is 
equally happy in removing. The incongruous 
relations of the angel sitting on the stone without 
the sepulchre, of the angel sitting within the se- 
pulchre, of the two angels standing, of the two 
angels sitting, one at the head and one at the 
foot 3 on these, says the Bishop, and on other 
minuter objections, I forbear making any more 
remarks ; ^' all of which are grounded on this 
mistake, that the angels were seen at one parti- 
cular time, in one particular place, and by the 
same individuals." Though I love bishops and 
an established church, I must flatly deny this ; 
for the mistake, if such it be, is not grounded on 
supposing that the angels were seen by the same 
individuals 3 for one objection is, that they were 
not seen by the same individuals, and as to the 
mistake concerning the particular place, and the 
particular time, the Evangelists are the authors 
of it. The place is stated by them all to be the 
sepulchre. The time is also specified by the 
four, " as it began to dawn," " very early in 



71 

the morning," '' early when it was yet dark;" 
and the learned Bishop forgets that he had him- 
self said, in order to refute a feeble objection, 
*' all the evangelists agree as to the day on which 
they went, and as to the time of the day, it was 
early in the morning/' This confusion and per- 
plexity perhaps were intended to try our faith; 
and surely, to use Peter's language, they are 
among the things hard to be understood. Yet the 
Evangelists were inspired, though the necessity of 
aghostlyinfusion, inorderto relate matters of fact, 
is not so obvious. I therefore conclude that there 
is rather more incongruity in this relation of the 
]Marys, and the morning, and the angels, and 
the sepulchre, than there is concerning the per- 
son and the persons possessed by the legion of 
two thousand devils. 

The Evangelists also relate the preliminaries of 
the resurrection variously. In Matthew, just 
after the institution of the holy supper, Christ 
said to his disciples, as a thing known, " but after 
I am risen ag^ain I will go before vou into Gali- 
lee," xxvi. 32. Yet it is stated in John, xx. 9, 
subsequent to the opening of the sepulchre, '^ for 
as yet they knew not the Scripture, that he must 
rise again from the dead." How is this recon- 
ciled ? The intimates of Christ did not know of 
his resurrection according to John, which accord- 
ing to Matthew he spoke of as perfectly under- 
stood ; and it was so, if we are to believe Matthew, 
that the chief priests and Pharisees required a 



72 

guard, ** lest his disciples should come by night 
and steal him away, and say he is risen from the 
dead." What Bishop will apologize for this con- 
tradiction ? 

The Evangelists likewise relate variously 
Christ's appearance. I shall confine myself to 
one single character of this variation or difference. 
In Matthew, Jesus appeared to the two Marys, 
and to the eleven disciples in Galilee, at a moun- 
tain where Jesus had appointed them ; *' and 
when tbey saw him they worshipped him, but (ob- 
serve) some doubted.'' In Mark, *' he appeared first 
to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he cast seven 
devils." " Then to two of them as they walked, 
as they went into the country." " Afterwards 
he appeared unto the eleven as they sat at meat, 
and upbraided them with their unbeHef and hard- 
ness of heart, because they believed not them 
which had seen him after he was risen." 

In Luke, it does not appear that Jesus mani- 
fested himself to the Marys ; in this Evangelist 
Christ first made himself known to the two dis- 
ciples, but not immediately ; he joined them, ex- 
pounded to them all that the Scripture contained 
concerning himself: he sat at meat with these 
two, took bread, blessed it, and gave of it to them. 
** And their eyes w^ere opened, and they knew 
him, and he vanished out of their sight." '^ And 
they arose up the same hour and returned to 
Jerusalem, and found the eleven gathered toge- 
ther, and them that were with them." As these 



73 

two were relating this event to the eleven^ ''Jesus 
stood in the midst of them : '' — they were affrighted, 
he asked them why they were troubled, '' behold 
my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle 
me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones 
as ye see me have;'* he also eat with them, and 
continued to command them what they should 
do ; " and it came to pass while he blessed them, 
he was parted from them and carried up into 
heaven." 

In John, Jesus first appeared to Mary Magda- 
lene, then to the disciples who were assembled 
within closed doors for fear of the Jews; " but 
Thomas, one of the twelve, called Dydimus, was 
not with them when Jesus came ; the other dis- 
ciples therefore said to him, we have seen the 
Lord ; and he said unto them, except I shall see 
in his hands the print of the nails, and put my 
finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
hand into his side, I will not believe." Here 
Thomas is called one of the twelve, though they 
were only eleven in Matthew and Luke ; but per- 
haps in the meantime Judas had also risen from 
the dead, though I must admit this is the only 
intimation of such an event. 

In eight days Christ appeared again to his dis- 
ciples, and to Thomas with them ; '' then saith 
he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold 
my hands, and reach hither thy hand and thrust 
it into my side." Two things in passing are here 
to be remarked : Why did Christ desire Mary, 



74 

^^ touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my 
Father." John, xxvii. 17. Yet in v. 27 of the 
same chapter, he desires Thomas to do that 
which he prohibits Mary from doing, as I have 
just related. Perhaps in the interval between his 
discourse to Mary and Thomas he had ascended 
to his Father, though to mortal sight he remained 
stationary. I have also to remark, that this re- 
appearance to satisfy Thomas, was an extraor- 
dinary favour, and had an extraordinary effect. 
Yet Christ had said on a former occasion, " if 
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will 
they be persuaded though one rose from the 
dead.** Luke, xvi. 31. However Thomas and the 
disciples appear to have been persuaded princi- 
pally by his resurrection from the dead, which un- 
happily seems not to have been considered fully 
sufficient by Christ to conquer their unbelief^ for 
after this he continued to perform miracles, and 
particularly the miraculous draught of fishes men- 
tioned in John, which Gospel is avowedly supple- 
mental, and according to the chronologists, long 
subsequent to the Gospels of the other Evange- 
lists. Matthew being written according to them 
about the year 62 ; Mark two years later ; Luke's 
account about the same time; and John's being 
posterior to them by twenty or thirty years. 
This last evangelist, with his brother James, 
Christ ^^ surnamed Boanerges, which is, the sons 
of thunder.** Mark, iii. 17. John was the disciple 
whom Jesus loved, nor is the cause of his love 



75 

mysterious, for the last verse of his Gospel mani- 
fests unbounded zeal, expressed with the true 
prophetic hyperbole ; " and there are also many 
other things which Jesus did, the which if they 
should be written every one, I suppose that even 
the world itself could not contain the books that 
should be written/' 

Though John's Gospel were intended to sup- 
ply defects in the accounts of the others, and for 
many reasons might be supposed to be abun- 
dantly full, yet neither in him, nor in the other 
Evangelists, is any numerous estimate afforded 
of the actual witnesses of Christ's resurrection j 
Paul however, as is usual with story-tellers, the 
last being always the most exact and elaborate, 
says, '^ and that he was buried, and that he arose 
again the third day according to the Scriptures ; 
and that he was seen of above Jive hundred 
brethren at once : of whom the greater part re- 
main unto this present, but some are fallen 
asleep. After that he was seen of James, then of 
all the apostles -, and last of all he was seen of me 
also, as of one born out of due time." 1 Corin^ 
thians, xv. 4. This account of Paul's is pro- 
perly a divine effusion. When did Paul see 
Christ ? Paul heard a voice, * " Saul, Saul, why 
persecutest thou me;" but how did this noise in 

* Voices from heaven were differently heard, as in John, 
" the people therefore that stood by and heard it said, that it 
thundered: others said, an angel spake to him." xii. 29. 



76 

the air become a visible being to a blind man ; 
*' non equidem vidi voleant mendacia vatum te 
Dea." V. %53. and Sancho saw his mistress by 
hearsay. Observe also the progressive testimony 
of the resurrection by succeeding retailers. In 
Matthew, Jesus, it is said, appeared to the two 
Marys, and to the eto^/i disciples, and the numbers 
accumulated, till Paul multipHed* the beholders 
to j^ve hundred brethren at once. They however 
all agree, evangelists and apostles, that Christ 
appeared to the elect only : ^^ Him God raised 
up the third day, and shewed him openly, not 
to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before 
God even of us." Acts, x. 40. 

Thus it appears that Christ's resurrection was 
proved by the most interested in the relation — 
by confederates embarked in the same project, 
for whether Christ was seen by one or two, or 
eleven, or twelve, or fiwe hundred, they were the 
Mary or the Marys, or his disciples or apostles, 
or brethren chosen before God — special wit- 
nesses truly. Paley admits, that if the evan- 
gelists had asserted the public appearance of Christ 
in general unqualified terms it would have been 
more effectual. But, says he, this proves their 



* Paul was not scrupulous he says himself. " To the weak 
became I as weak, that I might gain the weak.'* 1 Corinth, ix. 
22. In this, he became strong to the strong. From a per- 
aecutor, he became a patron — men never apostatize mode- 
rately. 



77 

candour : (p. 2S6. Evidences, kc.) indeed they 
are above all disguise, yet I must disagree with 
Paley, for I just as firmly believe the re-appear- 
ance of Jesus on the credit of his disciples, as if 
the whole multitude, who were replenished with 
the loaves and fishes, had been subscribing wit- 
nesses to his resurrection and ascent. 

Christ conferred on his apostles the power to 
take up serpents, to cast out devils, to drink 
without injury any deadly thing, to cure the 
sick by the imposition of hands, and wdiich the 
apostles did also confer by the same ceremony 
on others : he conferred on them also the powder 
to speak with new tongues. It was however on 
the feast of Pentecost that this last miracle 
reached its height. " And when the day of 
Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one 
accord in one place. And suddenly there came 
a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty 
wind, and it filled all the house where they were 
sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven 
tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of 
them, and they were all filled with the holy 
ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, 
as the spirit gave them utterance.'* Acts, ii. In 
short, they addressed immediately, " Parthians 
and Medes, and Elamites, and dwellers in Me- 
sopotamia, and in Judea, and Cappadocia; in 
Pontus, in Asia, Phrygia, and Pamphylia; in 
Egyptj and in parts of Lybia about Cyrene, and 



78 

strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes, Cretes 
and Arabians." 

Middleton denied that the apostles had the 
gift of tongues except as a transitory donation : 
this enraged many, and well it might. Mid- 
dleton gives as a reason for denying the perma- 
nency of that gift, that " the Greek is utterly 
barbarous, and abounding with every fault which 
can possibly deform language." But did not 
Gregory the Great say ; ^^ non debent verba 
coelestis originis subesse regulis Donati." 

Though I admit the fact related by Middleton, 
I deny the conclusion ; for though not only the 
Acts of the Apostles, and the subsequent writings 
in the New Testament, but also the gospels of 
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, which were 
in the fourth century selected out of many can- 
didates for inspiration, exhibit many grammati- 
cal errors ; yet it has been well said, these are 
so happily placed as to produce the best effects. 
Those writings also contain Rabbinisms, Syria- 
nisms, Chaldaisms, Arabisms, Latinisms, &c. 
which Michaelis has exhibited ; all these, instead 
of weakening, confirm absolutely the enjoyment 
of the gift of tongues by the disciples; which, 
so far from being transitory, must have been 
constant, most constant 5 as it appears they could 
not divest themselves, even occasionally, of this 
prerogative ; for when they wrote, they exhibited 
their manifold ability as linguists, by combining 



79 

in infinite confusion many discordant dialects. 
And here also we may observe a harmonizing 
incident ; had there been no rout at Babel, there 
would have been no foreign nation, for all 
would have lived in one place, therefore missio- 
naries* would have had no outlet for their zeal ; 
moreover all those, who have translated the Bible 
into I believe 42 new dialects for the same pur- 
pose, would have been little better than clumsy 
labourers in their native land. Again, Babel and 
its confusion have secured us the necessity of a 
numerous clergy 3 for Paley says, in his Essay on 
Toleration, '' the Christian religion requires an 
order of priesthood, because it is an historical 
religion founded on facts; moreover, on the more 
ancient religion of the Jews -, both which are 
contained in certain languages,! which have long 
ceased to be spoken, so that the study of them 
requires long preparation." Thus, in fine. Babel 
and the Christian revelation are so intricately in- 
volved in each other, that faith has ample scope 
for its dominion, and the clergy for their establish- 
ments. 



* These itinerants were common in Israel: "Wo unto you, 
scribes and pharisees, hypocrites; for ye compass sea and 
land to make one proselyte ; and when he is made, ye make 
him two-fold more the child of hell than yourselves. INIatthew, 
xxiii. 15. 

t This is quite moderate, in comparison to another holy 
work composed by Naniswar, which cannot be fully under- 
stood without the knowledge of fifty-six dialects, as so many 
flowed from the inspired penman. Moore's Hindu Pantheon. 



80 



CHAP. III. 

Prophecies in the Old Testament. 

Introductory to a developement of the pro- 
phecies, I shall make a few observations on the 
inviolable authenticity of the sacred volume. Jo- 
sephus relates, that it vi^as the peculiar province 
of the prophets and the priests, to commit to 
writing the annals of the Jewish nation. The 
advantage of this practice. Christian divines have 
not failed to notice ; and surely it is unfortunate, 
that in these after-times, any one may under- 
take the office of historian. With this inordi- 
nate license, no wonder that histories have de- 
clined from their high tone and exalted charac- 
ter, and that in our own country, the Venerable 
Bede, and Geoffry of Monmouth, have been suc- 
ceeded by such writers as Laing and Fox, and 
Hume. 

The priests of Israel were not merely the only 
authorized relaters of events ; they were also the 
sole depositories of their records. The verity 
therefore of the Old Testament was secured 
with the most scrupulous anxiety — nothing 
could originally be exaggerated or depreciated — 
nothing afterward altered, expunged, or interpo- 
lated. Yet the Annals of Rome were prepared 
and preserved by the pontiffs, and these docu- 
ments were not distinguished for their truth or 



81 

accuracy. To be sure the sacerdotal order at 
Rome was not hereditary, while in Israel it was 
a cast, and reserved for the Levites, the tribe of 
Moses and Aaron. 

Without inquiring how the holy book was 
unexceptionably conserved during the captivity, 
when some tribes of the Jews entirely perished, 
when such mighty alterations occurred in the 
doctrines of the remnant of that people, and 
when they even exchanged their native dialect for 
the Chaldee: without inquiring also how the 
language of the Jews, varied little from the time 
of Moses to that of Malachi, a space of a thou- 
sand years — (though some have imagined that 
if the Pentateuch were composed by Moses, there 
must have been a rifaciamento^ at least as late 
as Samuel) abandoning all such doubts and in- 
quiries, it is certain, that things are inserted in 
the Old Testament, which could not have been 
written at the date under which they appear, 
for they did not then exist, as in Joshua, x. 13. 
and in Second Samuel, i. 18. And even sup- 
posing that a portion of the wisdom of Solomon 
was written by the all-sapient king, though I 
imagine few even of those who are not Latitudi- 
narians, will not admit that c. ii. 12. and seq. 
belongs to a period subsequent to the date of its 
reputed publication. 

With regard to the gospels, equal or greater 
difficulties occur. Supposing that the four gos- 
pels, which were selected from many, were just- 

G 



82 

ly chosen, what is the security of their authenti- 
city in the meanest use of that expression ? In 
what language did Jesus speak? not in Greek. 
Wiien were the gospels written ? not for many 
years after Christ's death. Who composed the 
gospels? suppose that they were composed by 
those whose names are prefixed to them, who 
wrote them ? the evangelists probably could not 
write, — the gift of tongues included no donation 
of penmanship. Suppose them written by the 
evangelists, who preserved them afterwards? — 
Certainly no sleepless guardians of the truth. 
There is an interpolation in John to serve the 
purpose of the mysteries of the Trinity, which 
is not less gross than the fore-mentioned one in 
Solomon, relative to the crucifixion ; and it has 
been abandoned by Griesbach- — Person — the 
Bishop of Lincoln, &c. ; the whole passage in 
Acts, xix. from V. 11 to 20, is also discredited; let 
these suffice at present to alarm the confident, 
and moderate the dogmatic. Nor was the spirit 
of fraud confined to the falsification of the Old 
and New Testaments ; the Fathers of the church, 
who announced the propriety of pious frauds, 
or their friends, corrupted the text of Josephus 
clumsily, says Warburton, to make this Jew tes- 
tify for Christ. The English clergy also falsified 
again and again the rolls of parliament to serve their 
own dominion. All these, Levites, early Christians, 
Fathers of the Church, bishops of the establish- 
ment, were followed by the Congregation of the 



83 

Lord; " who took care," says Hume, to " publish 
only the articles favourable to themselves ^ and 
they were guilty of another imposture, in add- 
ing one to the number," &c. (Hist. England, 
vol. V. p. 31.) I now proceed to the prophecies, 
which will elucidate some of the foregoing ob- 
servations. 

Ham having seen the nakedness of his father, 
is cursed by Noah : — '' cursed be Ham, the fa- 
ther of Canaan, a servant of servants shall he be 
to his brethren 1" Why should any of Ham*s 
children be cursed on this occasion ? — but why 
Canaan, the fourth son of Ham, should be cursed, 
and not his elder brothers, is most curious. This 
execration then was descendable after the xndi,^' 
nev oi borough English, Some indeed have re- 
puted this curse to be a theological necessity, 
to instigate the Jews to conquer the land of Ca- 
naan, and enslave its inhabitants. This would 
approximate the iniquitous prophecy to reason, 
and therefore it is inadmissible. It is also said, 
" And Abraham passed through the land into 
the place of Sichem, unto the plains of Moreh. 
And the Canaanite was then in the land ; and 
the Lord appeared unto Abraham and said, un- 
to thy seed will I give this land^ and there build- 
ed he an altar unto the Lord, who appeared unto 
him." (Gen. xii.) Yet the Canaanite was not 
then in the land, nor will any one of any intel- 
ligence support the affirmative. 

This execrable prophecy is therefore impeach- 
G 21 



84 

able even by the most believing, yet happily pre- 
dictions enow remain, even to excess, for all di- 
vine and human purposes. A little fancy to be 
sure is necessary to perceive their completion. 
This is expected at all times, for prophecies 
being inspired, are adapted only to the cogni- 
zance of the least mundane of man's faculties. 
Beside the usual exertion of fancy, in order to 
perceive the coincidence between a prophecy 
and its fulfilment; something more is required 
to detect the completion of a Hebrew prophecy ; 
for a pious author said, *^ the truth is, the laws 
of methodical composition and arrangement, 
were neither known by the Hebrews, nor regard- 
ed by them in their didactic writing.*' Of 
course, in their prophetic intimations, they must 
have indulged in all the license of superlative 
disorder. But this looseness in their use of 
terms, and derangement in their collocation, were 
pregnant with many excellent effects; for by 
these means a prophecy had many chances of 
being successful; typically or literally, or fantas- 
tically, or by transition or reference ; besides, a 
prophecy having served to help the wants of the 
Old Testament, it was considered as equally 
adapted to serve the necessities of the New. Yet 
with all this extraordinary aptitude to profit by 
all occasions, a sort of difficulty attends some 
prophecies, which I trust the wise men of our 
Holy Church will illustrate; for instance — 
The saviour of the Jews was to be propheti- 



85 

cally a descendant of David, which he was not, 
but the son of the Holy Ghost, or of some other, 
for Mary was pregnant before she was married 
to Joseph, who was, it is said, of the stock of 
David. Had the Sages given Jesus a double 
paternity -, this, with deference, would have sa- 
tisfied many doubts. If however the prophecy 
of Christ's descent from David confessedly failed, 
another prophecy was most miraculously accom- 
plished in his person; a prophecy, observe, which 
had been fulfilled centuries before, was revived 
and was employed as a sacred anticipation of 
Mary and her Son, It is as follows : Isaiah 
proposed to give a sign to Ahaz in the following 
words: " Therefore the Lord himself shall give 
you a sign, behold a virgin shall conceive and 
bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel; 
butter and honey shall he eat, that he may 
know to refuse the evil, and choose the good." 
This prophecy in a short time was accomplish- 
ed. " And I took unto me faithful witnesses to 
record, Uriah the priest, and Zechariah the son 
of Jeberechiah. And I went unto the prophet- 
ess, and she conceived and bare a son." (c. viii. 
V. 2, 3.) That the prophet Isaiah, who per- 
formed such wonders for good king Hezekiah, 
should get a virgin prophetess with child, is not 
unintelligible; but that this sign should be ap- 
plied in 7 or 800 years after its completion, as a 
prophecy respecting Mary, the wife of Joseph, 



S6 

and her son, is not less miraculous than the pro- 
phetic descent of Jesus from David ; from 
whom, as I have said, Jesus confessedly was not 
descended. Yet the incredulous Jews neither 
believed that Jesus was the son of David, nor 
that a prophecy, accomplished by Isaiah's maid- 
en, was re-accomplished by Mary, Joseph's 
wife. In short they could perceive no similarity 
between Christ and their promised redeemer^ 
they expected a temporal prince, for their views 
were temporal, and Moses and his followers 
taught them none other. All predictions led to 
this prepossession. '^ And I will gather the rem- 
nant of my flock out of all countries whither I 
have driven them," &c. '^ Behold the days 
come, saith the Lord, that I will raise unto Da- 
vid a righteous branch, and a king shall reign 
and prosper, and shall execute justice and judg- 
ment on earth/* (Jeremiah, xxiii.) Now Jesus 
was no more a king than he was a descendant 
of David, nor is there any semblance of royalty 
in his life or adventures, if we omit his ordering 
his disciples to bring him another man's ass, 
and his riding on it into Jerusalem in a sort of tri- 
umph. The passage just quoted from Jeremiah 
has much less connexion with Jesus than Han- 
nah's song, though this is not prophetically an« 
nounced, " the Lord raiseth up the poor out of 
the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the 
dunghill, to set them among princes." (L Sam. 8.) 



87 

^ All the Jews expected, and indeed if the lan- 
guage of prophets did not enjoy a divine latitude,* 
none but a temporal prince could satisfy their 
just anticipations; in Jeremiah it is said, 'Mn his 
days Judah shall be saved, and Israel shall dwell 
safely.*' The disciples expected a temporal Re- 
deemer also : *' but we trusted it had been he 
which should have redeemed Israel," Luke, xxiv. 
21. And afterwards they asked him, *' Lord, 
wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom 
of Israel," Acts, i. 6. When I say the Jews 
could expect none but a temporal prince, let it 
not be supposed that I think they should not be 
persecuted for understanding language in its only 
intelligible import ; for they should have known 
that time meant eternity, and that real liberty 
and self-government signified the triumph of the 
cross, and a metaphysical redemption. But ob- 
serve how ably the ethereal interpreters, having 
ascended the empyrean, dropped from heaven to 
earth ^ as Rousseau says, " those humble Chris- 
tians soon altered their language, and quickly 
was seen this pretended kingdom of another 
world, under an invisible sovereign, become the 
most violent despotism in this." Social Contracty 
liv.iv. c. 8. 

Nor did the sequel encourage the Jews to em- 
brace Christianity. The Jews believed that they 

* " Among the Satrae/" says Herodotus, '^ the priestess 
responds, as at Delphi, and with the same ambiguity/' lib. vii, 
c. 3. 



88 

had received their laws and ordinances from God 
himself; and in the Old Testament it is declared 
repeatedly, " ye shall not add to the word which 
I command you, nor diminish aught from it.'* 
Deut. xlii. ibid, xii.32. Now who should author- 
ize them to alter their laws, they believing that 
these came specially from God ? not the son 
of David, nor the son of the Holy Ghost, if they 
had heard of the story of Deus et Virgo ; but the 
Christians did alter them. The Jews believed 
that circumcision was instituted by God, Gen. 
xvii. which God also enforced after the Exode. 
Joshua, v. Yet Paul said, 1 Corinthians, vii. 
"' circumcision is nothing.'' Paul also treats 
contemptuously the law of Moses ; *' and by 
him all that believe are justified from all things, 
from which he couldnotbe justified by the law of 
Moses.'' Acts, xiii. In the following passage 
Paul is still more supercilious, '' wherefore the 
law was our schoolmaster to bring us to 
Christ, that we might be justified by faith ; 
but after that faith is come, we are^ no longer 
under a schoolmaster." Gal. iii. The Jews 
did not believe in Christ, nor could they believe 
in him, and not renounce the law of Moses deli- 
vered by God ; yet are they justly persecuted. 

Having noticed the blindness of the Jews, I 
shall now signify the keen perception of an 
apostle. Peter, with the utmost facility, applies 
God's language in the Old Testament concerning 
the Jews — a chosen people y a peculiar people ^ to the 
Christians. 1 Peter, ii. 9. And as a hint is never 



89 

lost on the present generation of theologians, the 
Song of Solomon is construed as God's love to the 
Christian churchy for, says the Christian advocate 
Mr. D'Oyly, p. 59, '^ it is held, in its primary 
sense, to mean a real miarriage of Solomon with 
his bride, and the Rabbins themselves understand 
it to bear an allegorical sense — the union of God 
and his peculiar people ;'' therefore he concludes 
it may be appHed to the Christian church. Of 
course ; and I have provided conscientious dis- 
putants w^ith Peter's authority for this right of 
transfer. But I would ask the Christian advo- 
cate, for which of Solomon's seven hundred brides 
was this song composed ? Of the three hundred 
ladies of the outward chamber, I speak not ; or 
was it a sort of state epithalamium for each and 
every one of the thousand. A thought occurs to 
me ; perhaps Solomon was a monogamist, and 
that the seven hundred wives and three hundred 
concubines merely represent the orthodoxies* 
and heterodoxies of the Christian church. 

With the same licentious transfer, the denun- 
ciation of Moses against the Jews, should they 
disobey the ordinances of God : " the Lord shall 
scatterf thee among all people, from one end of 

* I do not refer, I assure the reader, to the clergyman's pun, 
orthodoxy is my own doxy, heterodoxy another man's doxy ; 
far be from me any disposition to treat matters of the last 
importance with levity : I may differ from learned and pious 
men, but I would comport myself with gravity. 

t The coincidence between the Jews and Armenians is strik- 



90 

the earth to the other ; thou shalt become aa 
astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among 
all nations, whither the Lord shall lead you :'* is 
repeatedly announced as a prophecy now accom- 
plishing on the Jews, because they reject the 
Gospel of Christ; that is, the same monitory 
curses are applied against the same people, 
should they swerve from the laws of God declared 
by Moses, and because they abide by those laws. 
Besides, this prophetic execration, which is trans- 
ferred to existing circumstances, had been already 
fulfilled on the Hebrews, because they had aban- 
doned the laws delivered by Moses ; '^ for they 
obeyed not thy commandments : and wherefore 
thou hast delivered us for a spoil, and unto cap- 
tivity, and unto death, and for a proverb of re- 
proach to all the nations among whom we are 
dispersed." Tobit, iii. 4. Here is another special 
instance of the resurrection of a prophecy, which 
having perished, by its completion during the first 
dispensation under Moses, is raised from the dead 

ing. They were both agriculturists in their native seats. 
They are now the reverse. Hobhouse also speaks of the Ar- 
menians, " from the time of -their forced emigration they 
substituted commerce for agriculture. They are now, no 
less than the Jews, a dispersed people, living in strange lands, 
and in Turkey ; notwithstanding their numbers, they may be 
considered rather a sect than a nation." Travels, p. 894. 
" Their minds display no other activity than what is sufficient 
to assist them in the pursuit of one only object, the attain- 
ment ef wealth," p. 895. " The chief Armenians of Constan- 
tinople are, as well as the Jews, money-brokers," p, 899. 



91 

in order to prove the verity of the second dispen- 
sation or ciira secujidce of heaven under Jesus. 
It is observable, that part of this prophecy vv^as 
more applicable to its original than to its substi- 
tuted purpose 3 it is said, *' ye shall be few in 
number, w^hereas ye were as the stars of heaven 
for multitude." Deut. xxviii. In their former 
dispersion they were ^ew^ but it is questionable, 
if even in Solomon^s reign, the Jews were more 
numerous than they are at present. 

I pass over other prophecies which enjoy the 
same ambo-dexter ability in supporting the 
v^eakness of the Old Testament, and leading the 
blindness of the New; many other curious and 
recondite applications of past sayings to present 
circumstances I also omit; as where Jeremiah, 
under the type of a potter's vessel, foresheweth the 
desolation of the Jews; for in truth the farrago 
libelli, which the Christian church has annotated 
and applied eternally for its own purposes, 
exceeds the monstrous ingenuity of the transmu- 
ting doctor in Ben Jonson's Alchemist, who 
referred every fable of pagan mythology to his 
philosopher's stone : 

Both this th' Hesperian gardens, Cadmus' story, 
Jove's shower, the hoon of Midas, Argus' eyes. 
All abstract riddles of our stone. 

This is no extravagant illustration of the zeal 
and curiosity of the true friends of Christianity : 
prophecies have, as I have related, been pressed 



92 

from the service of Judaism to become hand- 
maids to Christianity, and ethnic tales have been 
marvellously obliged to minister to the empire of 
the true faith. The Sybils have not been for- 
gotten among the auxiliaries, and in the Sistine 
gallery of the Vatican they hold a distinguished 
place among the Hebrev^ prophets. I shall now 
proceed to display tviro prophecies of the New 
Testament. 



CHAP. IV. 

Prophecies of the New Testament, 

JNo prophecy is more relied on than that of the 
destruction of the city and temple of Jerusalem. 
Let the reader consult the several chapters in the 
Evangelists respecting this event. How far the 
signs there given announce that catastrophe, 
must depend on the susceptibility, or rather, the 
dropsical thirst of his belief To say that a 
city shall be trodden down, and that a temple 
shall not have one stone left on another, is not so 
very peculiar 5 for many cities and temples have 
been overturned in ancient and modern times. 

It is assumed, and indeed it is expressly stated, 
that a prophecy accomplished is proof of divine 
influence 9 *' when a prophecy is fulfilled, it af- 



93 

fords complete evidence that he who uttered it 
spoke by the spirit of God/* (Encyclopoedia 
Britan. Prophecy.) If so, how many prophetic 
chairs may the world boast in Africa, Asia, and 
Europe. The Hebrews believed in prophetic 
raptures, which their God did not excite; so did 
the early Christians ; so did the Fathers of the 
Church; and Dr. Collyer now, with many others, 
can only account for the truth of some such pre- 
dictions, by attributing them to the instrumen- 
tality of demons. That prophecies have been 
accomplished, there is no doubt. I shall slate a 
few of them : — Col. Wilkes, (Sketches, &c.) says, 
that in 1626, by the birth of Sevajee, a prophecy 
was accomplished, for he became both a con- 
queror and a deliverer of the Hindus. 

Polwhele, in his history of Cornwall, writes, 
" in the parish of Paul, on the sea-shore, is a 
rock, called in Cornish Merlyn-car, or Merlin's 
rock. On this is foretold in Cornish the destruc- 
tion of Paul's church, Penzance, and New Lyn, 
long before they were in existence ;'' and this 
prophecy was accomplished in 1595. 

Sir John Davies mentions a prophecy by the 
same person, which had also been noticed by 
Giraldus, respecting Ireland : " Sextus moenia 
Hiberniae subvertet, et regiones in regnum redi- 
gentur; " " which" says Davies, "is performed 
in the time of James the Sixth." (Discoveries, 
&c. p. 77.) Here we have prophecies of the 
destruction of a temple ; of the redeemer of a 



94 

people; and of the subversion of a nation: all 
which were accomplished, according to the sin- 
cerity of the expressions in which they were de- 
clared. Now, suppose the prophecy of the de- 
struction of Jerusalem, and of the temple, pre- 
ceded their ruin, as certainly as the prophecies 
did the events which I have just recited, were 
they merely human, and is it divine ? 

But there is also something very wonderful at- 
tached to the destruction of the temple, for it is 
said, it was attempted to be rebuilt by the apos- 
tate Julian, and he did not build it. Yet I find 
nothing stated prophetically, that the temple 
should not be rebuilt. But a miracle forsooth 
was displayed, when Julian's workmen proceed- 
ed to clear the foundations. Indeed, Marcelli- 
nus relates, that globes of fire broke forth, and 
drove away the labourers. Did Marcellinus see 
this ? No. Then this miracle rests on the hear- 
say relation of a half-learned soldier. And mark 
the marvellous accompaniments, " that crosses 
were impressed on the persons of many behol- 
ders,'^ &c. In the ecclesiastical account of this 
wonder, globes of fire are always mentioned, but 
the tattooing by crosses is uniformly omitted, as 
far as I recollect. 

Let me also ask, do the believers in Marcelli- 
nus, on this occasion, concur in all the marvellous 
relations of Marcellinus ? Do they believe the 
prodigies related by the principal historians of 
Greece and Rome ? Do they not believe that 



95 

the destruction of Jerusalem by Alexander Se- 
verus was foretold, by wolves and hyaenas en- 
tering and howling in the cities; because Dion 
Cassius, lib. Ixix. chap. 14, avers the fact? Do 
they subscribe to the account by the same his- 
torian, that it was foretold Vespasian should be 
emperor, because an ox curtsied to him. (lib. 
Ixvi. chap. 1.) To be sure, Ziphilin, (p. 41) 
the epitomizer of Dion Cassius, condemns him 
for such relations, stating, he should rather have 
followed the example of Polybius, who never re- 
lates the miracles said to have preceded the de- 
struction of cities. 

Now, is it not just as probable, that Julian, if 
he had actually proposed to rebuild the temple, 
had been diverted from this design by ordinary 
concerns, as by celestial causes j and that various 
and encreasing business, an exhausted treasury, 
a mighty war, which suspended all other designs, 
and in which he lost his life, did rather induce him 
and the Jews to forego this project, than that God 
played off a volcano on the workmen. It appears, 
also, that many hundred years before Julian ex- 
isted, Cyrus proposed to rebuild the Jewish tem- 
ple, for it had been more than once destroyed -, 
and that Artaxerxes forbid the undertaking. 
It was prohibited by him, because he was in- 
formed, " that the Jews were always rebellious, 
and raised always wars therein : for the which 
cause, even this city was made desolate. And 
the building of the temple in Jerusalem ceased 



96 

until the second year of the reign of Darius, 
king of the Persians.'' (I. Esdras, ii. 23, 30.) 
But none of these considerations could, forsooth, 
have any effect on Julian. And we are to con- 
clude, that neither the unpropitious and repul- 
sive character of the Jews, when fully considered, 
nor the pressure of public affairs, and the jeo- 
pardy of the empire, could relax or procrastinate 
the tremendous design, but that a pyrotechnical 
miracle discomfited this impetuous, projecting, 
and short-lived emperor. 

I have exhibited some of the prophecies on 
which our holy religion is founded, and I have 
shewn the marvellous ability of our theologians, 
in making events consort with predictions, and 
further, in making predictions, which had anti- 
cipated one event, intimate by a sort of fore- 
boding passovevy another event in wholly different 
circumstances; and lastly, in making the non- 
performance of a design create a prophecy, and 
secure its fulfilment. Indeed, the decipherers of 
prophecies among us are only inferior to the 
throng of prophets in Israel, when they appear- 
ed in regiments eight or nine hundred strong; for 
it must be allowed, that if Israel enjoyed the 
prerogative of originating prophecies. Great 
Britain claims pre-eminence for discovering their 
completion. John Hawkins, Esq., proves, that 
Britain is the kingdom which Daniel declares 
God will set up. Captain John Maitland illus- 
trates the prophecies of Daniel by Revelations. 



97 

J. H. Frere, Esq., proves, that the prophecies 
of Daniel, Esdras, and St. John, have been ac- 
complished in the life of Bonaparte: and the 
ex-king of Sweden pronounces Bonaparte to be 
the beast in the Revelation. Mr. Faber en- 
gages in v^holesale discoveries of this kind ; while 
his friend, Mr. Burt, helps him in the retail trade, 
saying, " that present appearances give consi- 
derable vi^eight to Dr. Faber's supposition of the 
battle of Armageddon in the Holy Land.'' And 
thus an Irish legislator, vi^hen alienated in his 
mind, insisted that Armageddon meant Armagh, 
because in the Apocalyptic vision, something 
is incidentally said of its fine linen. Yet these 
writers, and a hundred more, appear to be out- 
done by Sir W. Jones, who. Lord Teignmouth 
says, founded his belief on Isaiah ; quoting par- 
ticularly, " who was put to death and complain- 
ed not.'* (Life of Sir W. Jones, p. 82.) Then 
the ejaculation, " my God, why hast thou for- 
saken me,*' is not plaintive. Let me not, how- 
ever, be understood as giving undisputed pre- 
eminence to the ingenuity and zeal of the 
Christians of the present day beyond all their 
predecessors ; never let it be forgotten, that in 
the last age, Whiston, a clergyman and mathe- 
matical professor at Cambridge, considered, that 
Mary Toft's having, according to popular be- 
lief, brought forth rabbits, was an accomplish- 
ment of a prophecy in Esdras. 

With this complaisance to prophecy, and this 
H 



98 

dexterity of teachers in all ages, it would be 
strange should any prophecy be baulked of suc- 
cess. And yet there is one which some, nay many, 
continue to say has not been fulfilled ; namely, 
the end of the world. The near approach of this 
consummation seems to have been the grand 
theme of all apostles, prophets, and priests, from 
John the Baptist to the present Rev. Mr. Proby. 
^^In those days, came John the Baptist preaching 
in the wilderness of Judea, and saying, " repent 
ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt, 
ii. 3. The same alarm was repeated by Jesus: 
" Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus 
came into Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the 
kingdom of God : and saying, the time is fulfilled, 
and the kingdom of God is at hand, repent ye 
and believe the Gospel." Mark, i. 14. What 
means " at hand," which has been extended be- 
yond the indefinite days of the creation. Peter 
has been quoted for this purpose ; but " beloved, 
be not ignorant of this, that one day is with the 
Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand* years 
as one day." 2 Peter, iii. 8. If so, even without 
employing this inordinate abuse of language, the 
Sybil's prophecy was accomplished : she predicted 
the destruction of the world, which however was 
divinely explained to signify the violent death of 



* This transcends the latitude required by the composers 
of the enigmatical verses mentioned by Plutarch, ysnuv stands 
for a year in them. Moral. &c. p. 186. 



99 

a person, whose name was Mundus. Procopiusde 
Bel. Gothico, lib. i. c. 7. We are however not 
now speaking of a day, or of a thousand years, 
but of '^ at hand," about one thousand eight 
hundred years after this expression had been 
significantly employed ; nor have we any concern 
at present, how one day, or one thousand years, 
may be short or long to God, but how " at 
hand," and similar expressions, are intelligible to 
man. 

"At hand" was used by the persons men- 
tioned, in the ordinary acceptation of these terms, 
*^ Know ye that the kingdom of heaven is nigh at 
hand : verily, 1 say unto you, this generation shall 
not pass away till all be fulfilled." Luke, xi. Again: 
*' Verily, I say unto you, that this generation 
shall not pass, till all these things be done." Mark, 
xiii.; and Matthew, xxiv. uses the same words. 
This Evangelist also says, " for the Son of Man shall 
come in the glory of his Father, with his angels, 
and then he shall reward every man according to 
his works. Verily, I say unto you, there are 
some standing here, which shall not taste of death 
till they see the Son of Man coming in his king- 
dom." xvi. "At hand" is evidently limited to a 
short period, and is even circumscribed to the ex- 
isting generation. Jesus, as if to impress his disci- 
ples with the urgency of his coming, addressed 
them: " but when they persecute you in this 
city, flee ye into another : for verily I say unto 
you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of 

H 21 



.100 

Israel till the Son of mankind* be come.'* Mattb, 
X. The disciples also taught that '^ the end of 
all things was at hand/^ 1 Peter, iv. 7. The Fa- 
thers of the Christian Church re-echoed the same 
expectation, and their sons, even their infant 
progeny of the present day, in the same spirit, 
impatiently pray to God to "hasten thy king- 
dom." Burial Service. 

This prophecy is not fulfilled. What then ? It 
is a divine inspiration and not less convincing than 
other prophecies fantastically enunciated and 
fulfilled by prevarication. Christ gives an excel- 
lent standard for discovering an orthodox pro- 
phet; ^' beware of false prophets, which come to 
you in sheep*s clothing, but inwardly they are 
ravening wolves, ye shall know them by their 
fruits." Matt. vii. 15. Now the fruits of this 
prophecy by Jesus and his disciples, and by the 
Fathers of the Church and their spiritual children, 
are the spread of the Christian religion, and, above 
all, of religious establishments; both which have 
given the clergy a mastery over the fortunes and 
the minds of men. Therefore excellent and lively 
is Peter's figurative intimation of the kingdom of 
heaven being '^ at hand ;*' but the day of the Lord 
will come as a thief in the night. 2 Peter, iii. 10. 

* This also shews how completely Judaic their mission was.. 



101 

4 CHAP. V. 

Mi/sferies, 

The mysteries of our holy religion are many 
and imposing, and that respecting the atonement 
is truly a concatenated series of the most occult 
and stupifying wonders. One man made, we 
know not how, and his rib fashioned into a wo- 
man, are placed in a garden. A serpent prevails 
on the woman to eat of the forbidden tree, and 
the woman induces Adam to transgress with her. 
For this first offence by this inexperienced pair, 
God pronounces heavy imprecations on them, 
and exiles them from Eden. To this Jewish 
account of the entrance of sin into the world, the 
Christians attach a fantastic pollution, which is to 
be purified by a vicarious sacrifice ; and certainly 
it is most becoming, that those who sinned at the 
beginning of time by representation, should be 
redeemed from sin, by substitution at the end 
of it. 

In this mystery, God's curse on the serpent — 
" his seed shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt 
bruise his heel,** is applied by Christians to sig- 
nify mystically, that Christ shall defeat Satan's 
attempts; though a simple solution might be as 
near the truth, namely, that the serpent's head 
bruised should be used to heal wounds inflicted 



10^ 

by the serpent, which application has been ac- 
tually practised in such cases: 

'' duum nocuit serpens, fertur caput illius apte 
" Vulneribus jungi : sanat quern sauciat ipse."* 

Serpents have also been used medicinally in 
Egypt, for the Elephanthiasis, according to Are- 
t^us.l This however would be too easy an illus- 
tration : and thus in the fulness of time, a man 
becomes I know not what, who is not of the seed 
of man, and the serpent becomes the devil ; that 
mystagogues for the noblest purposes, may 
outrage language, and facts, and fancy. 

The offence of Adam and Eve, and through 
them of all mankind, being stupendous, could 
only be expiated by an event equally astonish- 
ing, namely, the murder of God's self, or God's 
only son, to satisfy God*s sacred vengeance. To 
prepare this catholic remedy, the Holy Ghost 
was employed as a generative mediator between 
God and woman, to produce an expiatory medi- 
ator between God and man. How this spiritual 
incarnation was effected, has perplexed many. 
A Father of the Church said : " Deust loquebatur 
per suum angelum, et virgo per aurem impreg- 

♦ Lerenus De Medicina. 

t Curat. &c. (lib. ii. c. 13). The Chinese, Javanese, Hot- 
tentots, use them medicinally. (Barrow's China, p. 348.) 

X I would not be surprized, if the author of TartufFe alluded 
to this in his Malade Imaginaire — si Ton fait des enfans pai* 
Foreille. 



103 

nabatur.** I marvel that this mode of angelic 
cohabitation has not been made an article of our 
holy belief; for as Eve lost mankind his happy 
state by listening to the serpent, it is most fit- 
ting that the redemption of mankind should be 
introduced by the sense of hearing. Yet how 
brought the virgin forth? Aristotle says that 
weazles generate by the ear, De Animalibus (lib. 
iii. c. 12) ; and Plutarch adds, they bring forth 
by the mouth. (Moral, p. 270). I do not say 
that Mary was impregnated by the ear, and be- 
came a mother by her mouth 3 but I say this sug- 
gestion should not be hastily rejected. 

At all events a son was produced by a virgin, 
and the Godhead, " sic Deus et virgo,"—- as had 
happened according to Isaiah, as had happened 
according to Dion of Halicarnassus ; (Hb. ii. 
c. 48) as had happened according to Spenser; 



Men say he (Merlin) was not the son 



Of mortal sire, or other living wight. 

But marvellously begotten, and begun. 

On a fair lady nun. Faery ^ueen, b. iii. c, 3. 

This son of the God of the Christians, reach- 
ed the completion of his ministry, and was mur- 
dered to redeem all mankind from the sin com- 
mitted by Adam and Eve. This sacrifice of 
God*s only Son to satisfy God's just indignation, 
evinces, we are told, most super-human philan- 
thropy in God. And it is stated, as some pre- 
paration was necessary to introduce so benefi- 



104 

cial and superlative a mystery, tbat Abraham 'is 
prompt obedience, when God tempted him to 
sacrifice his son, was a divine rehearsal of this 
paternal achievement by the God of the Chris- 
tians; however it may be questioned if Jephtha's 
rash vow would not be more in point, though I 
must admit that, " a ram caught in a thicket by 
the horns,^' has a striking resemblance to Christ 
crucified. Madame de Stael, that great theolo- 
gian and moralist, has advanced beyond these 
typifiers; she considers the murder of Abel the 
basis of Christ's death. (Germany, vol. iii. p. 308). 
Such ingenious readings of types and symbols, 
and anticipations, have shocked a few of weak 
nerves, yet why should they wince ? Has not the 
Rev. Dr. Magee, in his admirable work on the 
Atonement, collected infinite notices of sangui- 
nary barbarians, sacrificing beasts and captives, 
and wretches of all kinds, in order to assure the 
reasonableness of the atonement. Whether the 
learned theologian has enumerated in his detail, 
Saturn's devouring his children according to 
some, or, according to Sanchoniathon, his offer- 
ing up his son as a holocaust to redeem the peo- 
ple from a plague ; I cannot say, though I read 
his argument with great admiration. Yet I own 
I am amazed that Madame de Stael, and Dr. 
Magee, and the like devotees of this son-slaying 
humanity and vengeance, did not rather rest the 
merit of the atonement on the sacrifices of the 
Jews to Moloch. The assassination and mas- 



105 

sacres which they refer to, are at most, merely 
murders without aggravation in honour of God ; 
but the votive offerings to Moloch were the 
slaughter of children by their parents, not, I 
must admit, to gratify parents' vengeance, but 
parents* superstition. 

This sanguinary satisfaction to the author of 
all goodness is very edifying and truly mysteri- 
ous, yet it is not so peculiar as Gibbon imagined, 
who said irreverendly of this fundamental dog- 
ma of Christianity, that he knew only of one 
religion which made the same the God and the sa- 
crifice. This writer's learning was on this oc- 
casion overpowered by his philosophy. Did he 
forget the beginning and the end of Apis ? This 
God was conceived by the Holy Ghost — '^divini- 
tus et coelesti igne conceptus." Mela, de Situ 
Orbis. (lib. i. c. 9.) And this God Apis always 
suflered a violent death: " the priests," says Pliny, 
" do not permit him to die, they drown him." 

Though the atonement be so imposing a mys* 
tery, yet some have questioned its equity. 
*' The people of Nicobar," says the Danish 
Missionary, Haensel, " laughed at us; they ob» 
served that they could not believe that the suf- 
ferings of one man could atone for the sins of 
another; and therefore, if they were wicked what 
we told them of a crucified saviour would not 
help them ; but they insisted they were good by 
nature, and never did any wrong, as we well 
knew." The ignorance of these unbeheving 



106 

people was so great, that not only they were not 
conscious of original sin, but their acquaintance 
with the atonement was so imperfect, that they 
imagined the atonement was to redeem the peo- 
ple from sins which they had committed, and 
not from sins which they could not by possibility 
have committed. 

It might be asked what obvious alteration has 
been effected by the atonement in alleviating the 
curses vented by the God of the Jews and Chris- 
tians on man, and on the earth, in consequence 
of Adam's transgression? The pains of child- 
birth are not mitigated ; the land produces 
thistles and tfiorns ; tillage continues to be ope- 
rose ; man is dust, and returns his mouldering 
frame to the earth. True : but the atonement, 
it is said, has restored mankind to a reversionary 
prospect of life hereafter. If so, the Jews who 
died prior to the Babylonish captivity, will ob- 
tain what they never expected either in dream 
or vision, even amidst their most fantastic ex- 
pectations. The Jews prior to that epoch, were 
ignorant of a resurrection, indeed so unacquaint- 
ed were they with that mystery, that when they 
shall be recalled into being, it will require some 
ingenuity in the ministering angels to persuade 
them of their identity. It is also remarkable, 
that while the atonement redeems us, it does not 
redeem us ; for we are told, " two things are ne- 
cessary to salvation, baptism and the supper of 
the Lord.** Then the atonement is rather a re- 



107 

prieve than a pardon. Besides, baptism, which 
is among the necessaries of salvation, is available 
or not, according to the mode of its application. 
Some asperse; others dip the initiated once; 
while the Greek church practises the trine emer- 
sion, to signify the mystery of Christ's three 
days' burial. Some baptize only adults, because 
John baptized Christ, when he was perfect 
man, and perfect God ; would that these hyper- 
theologians were deep in the waters of Jordan. 
In Ireland formerly some children were baptized 
in milk; in Africa at present the Biishereen bap- 
tizes the child by spitting in his face ; (Park's 
Travels, p. 269) and Philostratus, (Epist. Apol. 
p. 392) speaks of certain religious sects, who 
depurate themselves from filth by filth, w»jA« mUv 
x«Sa»pe<r^«»- Thcsc Several ways of watering men, 
women, and children, are considered by the re- 
spective votaries of the sprinkle, the dip, and the 
plunge, as effecting the most opposite conse- 
quences ; not less so, than the contrary opera- 
tion of two rivers in Antandria; one of which, 
according to Aristotle, De Animal, (lib. iii. c. IQ) 
rendered the cattle black which drank of it, and 
the other which made them white. 

Of the other mystery essential to salvation, 
the supper of the Lord, the utmost dissension 
prevails as to the nature of the elements adminis- 
tered. The real presence, according to Burnet, 
(Hist, of the Reform, vol. ii. p. 104) was the last 
point which the people abandoned, and with 



108 

what pains and difficulty this superadded extra- 
vagance was curtailed, we may conjecture from 
the puny and verbal change of transubstantia- 
tion to consubstantiation. I almost repine at 
this reform ; for what could be more consecutive, 
than that the son of God, murdered by his father's 
will, should be eaten by his votaries. And I can- 
not repress entirely my dissatisfaction at the re- 
formers withdrawing all respect for the Virgin 
Mary, yet I of course acquiesce in Dr. Sibbald's 
opinion ^ " it is not your Ave Marias, nor these 
things will do you (Macguire the Catholic) any 
good : it is Agnus Dei, qui tollit peccata mundV^ 
(State Trials). 

The next mystery I shall mention, is the Holy 
and Undivided Trinity. I did expect that the 
certainty of this miracle had been established 
beyond suspicion or cavilling, after the demon- 
stration of the Bishop of Glocester. Yet the 
Rev.'JohnMundy, of Manchester, has published 
a tract, in which he says he has quoted 900 pas- 
sages to prove the unity of God. Strange infa- 
tuation ! Unitarian teachers cannot subscribe to 
the Trinity, which is ascertained demonstratively 
by bishops, and archbishops, and primates, and 
popes ; which fulfils what is spoken in Ecclesias- 
ticus, " many are in high place of renown : but 
mysteries are revealed only to the meek." iii. 19. 
Is not the trinity proved by one reverend person, 
by the tertian ague ; by another, by a pot with 
three legs? Does not H. Harrington, M. D., 



109 

draw the same conclusion from certain simulta- 
neous sounds ? Has not the Rev. Peter Glan- 
dolphy adopted for the same purposes an In- 
dian's reply to a philosopher, that rain, snow, and 
ice, are all water ? and has not this mystery been 
illustrated by the wax, wick, and flame of a can- 
dle, without taking any credit for the snufF? 
Many other recondite exemplifications have 
been used. 

I shall close this topic by a poetic colloquy, 
between the three-in-one, from Themes of Ad- 
miration, by T. Heming : 

" The father of the Universe then spake, 
*' The son and spirit, with the father spake, 
" The father, son, and spirit, three-in-one, 
" And one-in-three, to one in all did say. 

It would be disrespectful, when discoursing on 
mysteries, to omit the 39 articles — the via lactea 
of the Protestant Church — a church which en- 
joys the most elaborate and extensive preroga- 
tives; having a Popish liturgy, Calvinistic arti- 
cles, and an Arminian clergy. Some jacobins 
would have the sacred 39 revised, and thus they 
would introduce French principles, and the ruin 
of our constitution— the wonder of the world. 
No; let the 39 articles continue as they are ; let 
them pass to future ages, a monument of the 



110 

sagacity of our reforming clergy, of the wisdom 
of parliament, and of the faith of the English 
people, who if they do not move mountains, sus- 
tain them without shrinking. The reform of our 
church was perfected by that great theologian, 
Henry the Eighth; as lustre cannot be added to 
the diamond, so our church cannot be improv- 
ed. Suppose that incoherencies and contradic- 
tions are obvious in the 39 articles; they afford a 
more vigorous exercise to faith. Never let our 
ecclesiastics betray any disposition to reconcile 
the hostile tenets of the Protestant church ; and 
above all things, should any one of their order 
hesitate, let them, as usual, improve on the pun- 
ishment inflicted on Adam, and dismiss their 
conscientious brother naked out of Eden. This 
will wonderfully enlarge the capacity of the cler- 
gy to believe; they will believe even without the 
commentary of Paley, who though he favored a 
revision of the 39 articles, abstained from urging 
the propriety of it, saying *^ he could not afford 
to keep a conscience." 

Indeed, those clergymen who have dared to 
doubt the sufficiency of these articles, have ma- 
nifested extreme impertinence. Did not the 
Rev. Sydney Smith, whose faculties otherwise do 
not appear to be of the most absorbent quality, 
in a note appended to a sermon, express his ab- 
solute belief in everi/ iota of the 39 articles. So 
did a worthy friend of Mrs. Simony, in Foole's 
Cozeners. '^ Then my Doctor is none of your 



I 



111 

schismatics, Madam, he believes in the whole 
thirty-nine: and so he would if there were nine 
times as many/' 

If so many clergy and laymen believe, it is 
worse than insulting for any one to say, he can- 
not believe. For what proposition is clearer than 
that a man may believe whatever he pleases. 
And for this reason, Jews are odious to God and 
man ; catholics are excluded from the higher offi- 
ces ; and dissenters are reprobated : for as pro- 
fessor Marsh says, " they dissent without a 
cause,'* in short, they are obstinate and mali- 
cious, rebels to God, and traitors to their kmg. 

To discredit any proposition because it con- 
tradicts the understanding, has been astutely ex- 
posed. Swift poignantly rebukes such misgiv- 
ing, " how little do they who quarrel with 
mysteries, know of the commonest actions of 
nature, the growth of an animal, of a plant, or 
of the smallest seed, is a mystery to the wisest 
man." In this spirit the author of the Tale of 
a Tub wrote sermons. 

Dr. Watson, bishop of LandafF, addresses 
Thomas Paine in the same strain, ^^ This also 
you refuse to believe, because you cannot ac- 
count for the propriety of the redemption ; " 
miserable reason ! stupid objection ! What is 
there you can account for ? Not the germination 
of a single blade of grass, nor the fall of a leaf of 
the forest. *^ Thus writes the experimentalist in 
chemistry, in his Apology for theBible^ and as the 



112 

bishop thought it conclusive, he repeated verba- 
tim, the same observatlolii in his Apology for 
Christianity. And I really believe, that neither 
Paine, nor any other person, could account for the 
germination of grass, if he beheved with Jesus, 
John, xii. 24. and Paul, " that which thoitjsow- 
est is not quickened except it die/' I. Corinth. 
XV. 37. 

Then cometh Dr. Olinthus Gregory, who de- 
vionstratesy that if we withhold our assent from 
propositions incomprehensible, we must be uni- 
versal sceptics, and he would prove the trinity 
by a verbose display of the bishop's scornful eja- 
culation. Though causes be not known, yet 
men, from observing constant consequences, 
may assume presisting relations or causes equally 
operating ; and this they may do without absur- 
dity, yet doubt or disbelieve nonsensical dogmas, 
and hearsay miracles, and whimsical traditions, 
which contradict their uniform experience, and 
the elements of their reason. But suppose not, 
how is man's ignorance of what man sees, to pro- 
mote man's belief in what he does not see, and can- 
not understand. Yet I freely admit that this 
argument, or inuendo, which teaches that the 
efficacy of human ignorance should advance 
man's faith, tends to introduce a comprehension 
of all religions. For, admit this operation of ig- 
norance, who should doubt the incarnations of 
Vishnu or the triad of paganism j or that Thes- 
pius of Soli ascended to the place of the depart- 



113 

ed, where he saw three genii sitting in a triangle, 
or any thing else; and I wonder Dr. Olinthus 
did not apply this catholic logic, to convince 
those who doubted how a second edition of his 
Encyclopaedia should be identical with the first; 
for some were so incredulous as to conclude that 
the word second was no uiystery, but a nianifest 
imposture. 



CHAP. VI. 

Moi^ality of the Christian Religion. 

The morality of our holy religion is a favou- 
rite theme, and deserves the purest admiration^ 
yet its supreme and distinguishing characteristic 
is still more exalted. This requires an awful il- 
lustration. 

The Old and New Testaments, as I have al- 
ready stated, are completely combined ; they are 
truly in stricter unity than accessaries before, 
and accessaries after the crime ; the same God 
is common to both. The doctrines therefore of 
each cannot be repugnant, as some say, but on the 
contrary, there must be a consent and harmony 
between them, and indeed, the filiation is so 
striking, that it must affect the most casual ob- 
server. I shall proceed with circumspection. 

It is said, the Jews believed in one only God, 
T 



114 

while all other nations were polytheists and ido- 
laters. Each proposition is false. Abraham * 
was doubtless bred a heathen ; the God of Nahor 
is thought a heathen deity. (Gen. xxxi. 53.) 
Laban's images, called his gods, shew that he 
was not clear of heathen idolatry ; and Jacob's 
house was infected with it. (Gen. xxxi. 30. 
XXXV. 2.) When the Jews entered Egypt, they 
were not exempted from superstition, and on 
their exode they were sunkf in the lowest prac- 
tices of idolatry. The Jews believed in local 
deities, — their God was not single, but pre- 
eminent. Jethro says, " I know that the Lord 
is greater than all gods, for the thing wherein 
they dealt proudly he was above them." (Exod. 
xviii.) Some of the Jews were monotheists, but 
the bulk of the people were not ; their falling off 
is frequently repeated ; even Solomon, the wisest 
of men, was affected with the common infirmity. 
It appears then that the earliest Jews were 
monotheists by courtesy, and that they were 
obliged to no very edifying school for their im- 
provement in orthodoxy; for *' the JewsJ came 
out of the Babylonian captivity more firm be- 
lievers of the unity of God, and more averse to 
idolatry, than they were when they went into 



* " Imperfectness of Heathen Morality," prefixed to Cum- 
berland's Law of Nature. 

t Warburton's Divine Legation, book v. sec. 2. 
t Imperfectness, &c. p. 13. 



115 

captivity." This also affords the Jews no great 
triumph over the people of other nations. 

The Jews were anthropomorphites ; so were 
the Failiers of the Church. (Warburton, Div. Le- 
gation, book iii. SfC. 4). Laud* also seems to have 
inclined to the same opinion j and how far Paley 
differed from them, who wrote a dissertation 
on " the Personality of the Deity/' I leave his 
friends to determine. 

In this the Jews were not particular. Cle- 
men.sf of Alexandria says, " the Ethiopians re- 
present their gods black, and flat nosed ; the 
Thracians theirs, swarthy and blue eyed, and 
they assimilate the minds of their gods to their 
owii." So the Hebrews represented the god of 
the Hehrews a very Jew in his partiality and 
prejudice; and with the same overweening pre- 
sumption, they reputed the centre f of the earth 
the middle of Jerusalem. They declared that 
God called them " a holy people,'* '' a chosen 
people," ** a special people unto himself, above 
all people that are upon the face of the earth." 
Why ? — was it because they were most moral, 
most humane, most philanthropical, most just, 

♦ The archbishop said, " it is not lawful to make a picture 
of God the Father, but it is lawful to make a picture of Christy 
and Christ is called the express image of his Father.^* State 
Trials, vol. i. p. 461. 

i Stromata, lib. vii. p. 711. 

X Grotius, de J. B. et Pacis, lib. ii. chap. xxii. § 13, 
Selden, de J. Nat. and G. lib. ii. chap. ii. p. 280. 

12 



116 

most generous ? no : there never existed a people 
pretending to civilized life, more dissocial, un- 
kind, and unrelenting. " Go," said Saul to the 
Kenites, " depart, get you down from among the 
Amalekites, lest I destroy you v^ith them, for 
ye shewed kindness to all the children of Israel, 
when they came out of Egypt.'* (I. Samuel, xv. 
6.) Yet, for this individual act of humanity 
and gratitude, the Jewish legends state, that 
God repented that he raised Saul to be king. 

The Jews represented their God as exerting a 
special providence in destroying nations for their 
service : " I will send an angel before thee, and 
I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and 
the Hittite, and the Perizite, and the Hivite, and 
the Jebusite." Under false pretences they robbed, 
by God's order, the Egyptians, and they murdered 
or made captive the Shechemites contrary to the 
most solemn assurances. 

If such be the character of the God of the 
Jews, how can the same, when God of the Chris- 
tians, abound in all the charities. To believe 
this, God must have been reformed, or human 
intelligence is inverted. Yet it is insisted, that 
the Gospels are the sanctuaries of morality, nay, 
the very well-head of all the virtues, and the only 
source of them. As to philosophy, and philoso- 
phers, they are utterly excluded from participat- 
ing in the instructfon of mankind. Lactantius 
and Theodoret, and the like, revile the ancient 
?ages, calling them dotards, fools, and asses ; and 



117 

what divine has not been equally eloquent. Bi- 
shop Hurd called David Hume *' a puny dialec- 
tician from the north;'* and in speaking of Vol- 
taire and Rousseau, he affirmed, *' it is neither 
parts nor logic that has made them philoso- 
^ phers, but infidelity only." The latter declaimers 
against philosophy, during twenty- five years of 
vi^ar for the restoration of the Bourbons, are un- 
bounded in their abuse, and numerous beyond 
computation. Yet the philosophers were not 
utterly absurd and stupid, even before the revela- 
tion of Christianity. Pythagoras* and his fol- 
lowers said no one was wise but God. The 
StoicSjf that God was the beginning, m.iddle, and 
end of all things. These were tolerable opinions 
for men not illumined with the divine light of the 
Gospel. I admit, however, that the philosophers 
were not anthropomorphites, indeed, the Epicu- 
reans treated this opinion mostirreverendly. (Ci- 
cero, de Nat. Deorum, lib. i, p. 20S.) Of course 
they probably would not have believed that any 
man " knew God face to face." And Seneca J 
implied as much, when he said, '* no one knows 
God, many speak ill of him with impunity." 



* M})^i>« ya§ Eivat (XQ(pov uvBpuTTov aAA* jj Btov. Diog". Laert. 
p. 8. Phocylides said the same. Apud Stobaeum, p. 37. 

t Zsvq apx,V} Zey? jjt^io-cr* A»o? 'TTKvrot TtrvKTcn. Plutarch, 
Moral, p. 646. 

X " Nemo novit Deum, multi de illo male existimant im- 
pune." Epist. 31. 



118 

The philosophers did not believe that *^ the 
Lord's name is jealous." Exod.xxxiv. Nor that 
he was angry, nor that he sacrificed nations in 
his vengeance. Cicero* on the contrary affirms, 
that all philosophers agreed that God never was 
angry, and never injured any one. The philo- 
sophers, I must also admit, did not generally be- 
lieve in miracles ; and I verily think that they 
would have denied that the sun*s course was 
stopped, in order that the Jews might continue 
their massacre, though they might have been so 
pagan as to have acquiesced in Homer*s fancy, 
when the poet feigned, that on the return of 
Ulysses to Ithaca, the sun loitered beneath the 
horizon, purposely that the hero might enjoy 
with Penelope the luxury of sad recollections, in- 
termixed with connubial delights. Odyss, lib.xxii. 
V. 242 and 345. 

The philosophers were also but moderately 
addicted to imprecations or deprecations -, to 
simple praying, or to pious orgies and proces- 
sions, and the like: and Zaleiicus said, *^ God is 
not honoured by festivals or exhibitions, like a 
bad man, but by virtuous and just actions." 
Apud Stobaeum, p. 279. They also had so little 
respect for faith, that saving and pre-eminent 
Christian qualification, that it was their common 



* " At hoc quidem commune est omnium pbilosophorum, 
nunquam nee irrasci deum, nee nocere.*' De Officiis, iib. iii. 



119 

doctrine, that virtue was the consummation of 
man's nature. Apud Stobaeum, p. 7. 

Having shown the inferiority, or the difference 
between the philosophers and the inspired, it 
w^ill be necessary to consider the moral doctrines 
of the Christian religion, for which it is so raptu- 
rously applauded ; and certainly no religion wants 
.apophthegms of distinguished equity. They 
grace every superstition, though how far they 
have been eventually repealed by contrary dog- 
mas and decisions, has Httle occupied the atten- 
tion of mankind. Thus, it is said, as if ashamed 
of the decrees and execution of passionate and 
heedless cruelty and destruction. " The fathers 
shall not be put to death for the children, neither 
shall the children be put to death for the fathers, 
every man shall be put to death for his own sin.*' 
Deut. xxiv. Yet after this proclamation, how 
many nations and people were indiscriminatefy 
destroyed, and what Jew has marked the depar- 
ture from this decision ? — what Christian has ad- 
verted to it ? — what Christians (they are few and 
fearful) have expressed adhorrence at the iniqui- 
tous spoil and massacre of nations by the Jews, 
acting, as they presume, under God's command ? 
Even Bishop Watson treats with comparative sa- 
tisfaction the extirpation of the seven nations. 
Apology, p. 6, while thousands consider the Jews 
on those occasions as goodly executioners of the 
divine wrath. 

It happens also, that not only equitable senti- 



120 

merits are defeated by divine commands, and by 
their merciless execution, but casual good is re- 
pealed by frequent and enforced evil , and this 
in the Gospels. It is said, " do unto all men as 
you would they should do unto you :"* if this were 
intended to operate truly, would it not be sup- 
ported by expressions inculcating mutual reserve, 
and liberality, and independence -, yet on thecon-^ 
trary it is said, " he that is not with me is against 
me," and this is announced under tremendous 
penalties. 

It is affirmed that Christianity teaches bro- 
therly forgiveness in a manner which no philoso- 
pher ever imagined, and the seventy times seven 
are quoted with great effect ; but Jesus circum- 
scribes this fraternal reconciliation, commanding 
brother to pursue brotlier with a stranger*s ven- 
geance; thus — " but if he shall neglect to hear 
them, tell it unto the church : but if he neglect 
to hear the church, let him be unto thee as a 
heathen and a publican." Matt, xviii. 

It is also boastingly repeated, " bless them 
that curse you :" yet even the fig-tree withered 
under the curse of Christ. Paul cursed all those 

* This advice Mr. Ensor has shewn to have been inculcated 
in many ways by pagans. I shall add two additional instances 
tohisnumerous list. "Antoninus Pius senatui tantum detulit 
imperator, quantum cum privatus esset, deferri sibi ab aho 
principe obtabat." J. Capit. in Ant. Pio, 6.— Trajan said, 
'^'^talem se imperatorem esse privatis quales esse sibi impera- 
tores privatus optasset. Eutropius, viii. 2. 



121 

who may preach any Gospel except " that which 
we have preached unto you." Gal. i. 8. The 
protestant Church adopts also a litany of curses, 
" to which the people cry, amen." 

Dira detestatio 
Nulla expiatur victima. 

Thus also in Greece they anathematize, says 
Gell, by casting stones together, the devotee re- 
peating a curse with every stone he throws^ *' and 
as every man is supposed to be cursed for good 
reason, it becomes the duty of every good Chris- 
tian to add at least one stone to the heap." 

It is also esteemed a sublimated beneficence, 
^^ love your enemies." Yet how are mere disbe- 
lievers in Jesus menaced ^ " love your enemies," 
is changed to hate your enemies ; nay more, for 
those who are not enemies, but merely indifferent 
to him and his pretensions, are most fearfully 
denounced ; indeed it may be retorted on this su- 
perlative preacher of love to enemies, " for if ye 
love them which love you, what reward have ye ? 
Do not even the publicans the same ?" Matt. v. 
Observe, besides, how Jesus exemplifies his direc- 
tion of love to enemies: ''And whosoever shall not 
receive you (his apostles) nor hear your word, when 
you depart out of that house or city, shake off 
the dust of your feet. Verily I say unto you, it 
shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and 
Gomorrah in the day of judgment, than for that 
city." Matt. x. Again; '' and it shall come to 



122 

pass, that every soul which shall not hear that 
prophet, shall be destroyed among the people.*' 
Acts, iii. 23. " Forgive your enemies ^'^ said Jesus, 
yet the evangelists Matthew, Mark, and Luke, 
apply to the avenging Jesus, '* sit thou on my 
right until I make thine enemies thy footstool."* 
Thus then we perceive the amount of Gospel 
morality, when texts are confronted, and deeds 
are adduced to determine the contradiction. 

No : morality is verbiage ^ and faith in Jesus 
Christ predominates and absorbs all considera- 
tions ; " every spirit that confesseth that Christ 
is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit 
that confesseth that Christ is not come in the 
flesh is not of God." 1 John, iv. Morality is 
scarcely incidental. Jesus, the apostles, the 
fathers, and popes, magnify faith till morals are 
forgotten ; and Luther, the mighty reformer, as 
sturdily contemned moral conduct in comparison 
to faith, as if he had sat in the chair of St. Peter : 
in his sermon, adversus Regem, he says, it is sa- 
crilegious and impious to endeavour to please 
God by works, and not by unique faith ; *^ sa- 
crilegium est et impietas velle placare Deo per opera, 
et non per solum Jidem,*' Our holy Church, the 



* Abdullah, on being installed governor of Damascus, his 
footstool was made of the mutilated bodies of seventy chiefs of 
the Ommiadae, who were beaten to death with clubs^ in his pre- 
sence. Price. This was downright mercy, in comparison to 
the teacher of forgiveness. 



123 

paragon of establishments, sinks morality still 
lower, while it exalts the prerogative of faith : 
" Works done before the grace of Christ and the 
inspiration of his spirit, are not pleasant to God, 
for as they spring not from faith in Jesus Christ ; 
yea rather, for that they are not done as God 
hath willed and commanded them to be done, we 
doubt not but they have the nature of sin/* 
Article xiii. Do these opinions, dogmas, and 
denunciations, promote reason or utility, or mo- 
rality ? No: the Christian religion aims at more 
important objects, namely, faith in Christ Jesu, 
and obedience to creeds and articles, and priests. 
Suppose, however, that all that is well said in 
the Gospels, is neither impaired nor contravened 
by subsequent relations ; suppose that what is 
bad was omitted, as the improvidence taught, 
** take no heed of to-morrow.*' Matt. vi. Luke, 
xii. as the abject submission to repeated vio- 
lence. Matt. v. 42 ; as the hideous insensibility 
inculcated; *' let the dead bury the dead," when 
a son asked Jesus permission to go and bury his 
father. Matt. viii. 22. Mark, ix. 61. Suppose 
this and the like expunged, yet still how imper- 
fect are the Gospels as a manual of morals. This 
is generally admitted by the most heated pane- 
gyrists of Christianity ; and to this Dr. Magee 
perhaps alludes in saying, " in truth, the object 
of our Saviour's life was to supply the subject, not 
to promulgate the doctrines of the Gospel 3" this 
our grave author says was to be effected *^ by 



those to whom our Lord promised the unerring 
aid of the holy spirit." No doubt the author of 
the atonement is orthodox, and it is equally to 
be inferred, that what the apostles were to Christ, 
the clergy are to the apostles, who have been and 
are busily employed in teaching and preaching 
the doctrines of the Gospel, which fulfils what 
was said by Paul, 1 Corinth, i. 21, " for after 
that, in the wisdom of God, the world by wis- 
dom knew God, it pleased God by the foolishness 
of preaching to save them that believe." 

Thus we continue to be told, amidst the eter- 
nal theme of faith, faith, faith, that Christianity 
promotes the most enlightened morality, and that 
to this revelation the world is indebted for all the 
benefits which it enjoys; nor is this so extraordina- 
ry when Chateaubriand insists, that "Christianity 
has invented the organ, and given sighs to brass." 
I marvel this friend of legitimacy and Christianity 
did not typify these inventions by PauFs '* sound- 
ing brass or a tinkling cymbal." To Christianity 
is also attributed the abolition of the slave-trade; 
yet to what efficacy can that system pretend, 
which had been nugatory for many centuries. 
Burgess, Bishop of St.David, says, " that St. Paul 
preached the Gospel in Britain, is beyond con- 
troversy." Suppose, however, that the Gospel 
was not preached till afterward ; was there not in 
the 14th century a slave-market for native Britons 
at Bristol ? nor has the slave-trade been abolish- 
ed by the British legislature more than a few 



125 

years; and at this day many subjects of Britain 
are slave-holders, and even the present Christian 
missionaries in Africa are slave-masters. The 
disposition to abolish slavery in England is not 
because v^^e are Christians, but because we are 
men. Christ and his disciples saw slaves in all 
directions, yet not one of them offered a hint at 
their redemption. 

It is rather presumptuous to attribute an ame- 
lioration in society to the influence of Christia- 
nity, when the world declined from worse, to 
worse after the promulgation, and with the exten- 
sion of Christianity, and when after it had 
been preached, and was triumphant for many 
centuries, the utmost ignorance,* stupidity, and 
vice possessed all Europe. If the world declined 
for many centuries after Christianity was esta- 
blished, by what logic should the subsequent res- 
toration or improvement of society be attributed 
to Christianity ? 

Consider Christianity by itself, and estimate 
its incidental influence. Harrington says, '^ there 
never was a war of religion but since Christia- 
nity." Oceana, p, 59. How many wars have 



* The first William of Sicily employed Musselmen as his 
guards and ministers. Frederick the Second was nearly as 
favourable to them. And is it not certain that the believers 
in Mahomet were the restorers of science and literature in 
Europe ? When the Spanish king dismissed the Musselmen 
from his territory, he expatriated his most valuable subjects. 



m 

Christians waged with Christians for religion's 
sake : 



■ Then ceremony leads her bigots forth. 
Prepared to fight for shadows of no worth ; 
While truths, on which eternal things depend. 
Find not, or hardly find, a friend. 



What wars, massacres, and persecutions, have 
harassed the different nations of Europe by Chris- 
tian sectaries ! Even at this instant, dreadful are 
the excesses which Catholics commit against 
Protestants at Nismes and its vicinage. In 
Greece also the pastors of the Greek church 
anxiously excite a general hatred against all reli- 
gions, particularly the Roman Catholics. (Barthol- 
dy*s Travels.) In the British empire how active are 
the Protestant clergy against Catholics and Dis- 
senters, who would be emancipated ; and does not 
Bishop Burgess piteously lament that the Unita- 
rians are tolerated. How malevolently do the two 
Bible Societies in Great Britain charge and retort 
on each other. Professor Marsh accuses the 
members of one of these bodies with having for- 
feited both truth and candour. Their champion 
replies, *^ the spirit of papacy must be at the 
bottom of these observations.'* Observe, both 
are of the Protestant church, and this exasperates 
their animosity. 

Simla quam similis turpissima hestia vobis. 

But it may be said, that these wars, dissensions. 



127 

and enmities, are not attributable to Christianity. 
Yet Christ said, ** suppose ye that I am come to 
give peace on earth ; I tell you nay j but rather 
division," &c. Luke, xii. 51. If not attributable 
to Christianity, why have they been associated 
v^ith it in every epoch of its existence, from its 
promulgation to the present hour. The Jewish 
religion, the root of the Christian church, began 
with partiality and fratricide, and this execrable 
character was impressed on its votaries in all 
ages, even till the siege of Jerusalem, when the 
danger without could not suspend the animosity 
of its people against each other, relative to some 
points of dogmatism. And how much better 
were the Christians ? Recur to the beginning of 
Christianity ; consider subsequent events, and 
the conduct of the professors of the true faith ; 
and then decide, whether what has happened is 
in opposition or conformity to the earliest opi- 
nions and practices of Christians. When Christ 
was alive, his disciples " disputed among them- 
selves who should be greatest.** Mark, ix. Luke, 
xxii. they were ambitious, and expressed their 
resentment against each other. Matt. xx. And 
afterward *^ the contention was so great that they 
departed asunder one from another.*^ Acts, xv. 38. 
Again; one disciple betrayed Christ for thirty 
pieces of silver, yet a common robber refused to 
betray Charles the Second, of whom he was no 
partizan, for thirty thousand pounds. Another 
disciple flattered Jesus, then denied him, and 



128 

again and again, with imprecations; " then be- 
gan he to curse and swear, saying, I know not the 
man/' Matt. xxvi. Do modern Christians, or 
Jews, or Hindus, or outcasts, exhibit more pre- 
sumption,* enmity, weakness, and wickedness, 
than those very men who received the gospelled 
radiance directly from Christ's self, and who 
were chosen to bear testimony of him, and his 
doctrine, and his divinity. And how much more 
amicable, provident, and virtuous were Chris- 
tians immediately after the crucifixion and re- 
surrection, and all the marvels attending on that 
catastrophe. " Now this I say, that every one 
of you saith, I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and 
I of Cephas, and I of Christ.'' 1 Corinth, i. 12. 
Nor v^as the morality of the first Christians more 
exemplary ; ^^ for ye are carnal, for whereas 
there is among you envying, and strife, and divi- 
sions." ibid, iii. 3. Again : " brother goeth to 
law with brother, and that before unbelievers." 
ibid. vi. 6. Again: '^ nay, you do wrong, and 
defraud, and that your brethren." Such were 
the Christians in the lifetime of Christ, and dur- 
ng the ministry of Paul. Thus I have shewn, 

* This holy religion also conjured up a cause of new con- 
tention among men, for this world was not sufficiently fruit- 
ful in topics of pitiful ambition. James and John sought Je- 
sus to allow them to sit on his right hand and on his left in his 
glory. Mark,x. 37. ; and thus to degrade the others. '' And 
when the ten heard it, they began to be much displeased with 
James and John.*^ xli. 



129 

that morality is not the object of Christianity ; 
and that dissension, enmity, and selfishness began 
with the first Christians, and have been conti- 
nued through every age, even to the present day, 
when the apocalyptic vision is completed, and the 
Gospel is preached in every tongue, and to all 
nations. Truly they discredit our transcendant 
religion, who consider that it could descend to 
social purposes of temporal utility. It is high 
above all height. 



CHAP. VII. 

Consolation of Religion. 

Paley admits that teaching morality was not the 
primary end of the mission of Christ j (Evidences, 
&c. p. 335) and that morality, properly speaking, 
cannot be a subject of discovery ; but that the 
object of the Christian dispensation was princi- 
pally to establish proofs of a future state of re- 
wards and punishments, ibid, p. 358. If so, the 
pretensions of this revelation are equally vain, as 
they also were anticipated ; for a state of future 
rewards and punishments, had long been taught 
by many priests and legislators : by so many in- 
deed, that Warburton considered Moses unique 
in not availing himself of it in his machinery of 
government. I cannot apprehend how these 

K 



130 

dogmas could be reputed a Christian revelation, 
nor why a special mission from heaven was re- 
quisite to inculcate what the prophets of the cap- 
tivity had learned in Babylonia,* and had taught 
in Palestine many centuries before the birth of 
Christ, and which a large majority of the Jews 
had adopted among the tenets of their creed. 

But Jesus, it may be said, confirmed the re- 
ceived dogma of a future state ; I shall state his 
testimonials i they are very affecting. Christ said, 
" Now that the dead are raised, even Moses 
shewed at the bush, where he calleth the Lord, 
the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the 
God of Jacob.'* Luke, xx. 37. This proof of the 
resurrection of the dead is far beyond ordinary 
apprehensions. From the burning bush of Moses 
I proceed to another proof afforded by Christ of 
the resurrection : " As Jonas was three days and 
three nights in the belly of the whale, so shall 
the Son of man be three days and three nights 
in the heart of the earth.'' This is another ex- 
traordinary argument, and wonderfully illus- 
trated; yet two thirds of the wonder is to come. 
Christ, in the foregoing sentence, says, he shall 
be three days and three nights in the heart of 



* Much of the Christian dispensation seems referable to the 
samecountry, or to those connected with it. God, devil, and 
Redeemer, are not Jewish but Persian. Plutarch, Moral, p. 272, 
there was in the Persian Liturgy, Oromazes and Arimanius. 
3.nd Mithris between both, fnaor J« a.^<p(nv tov Mj^fnN 



131 

the earth \ yet at his own crucifixion, he said to 
one of the malefactors, ''to day sh alt thou be 
with me in Paradise."* Luke, xxiii. 43. Here, 
then, we ascertain, that Paradise is in the heart 
of the earthy nor is this all, for in the apostles' 
creed it is said, Jesus Christ " was crucified, 
dead, and buried, he descended into hell." 
Then Christ was at the same time in hell, and in 
paradise, both which are in the heart of the earth, 
as Jonas was in the heart of the whale ; he who is 
not convinced by these proofs, has his heart har- 
dened 3 truly we may say of Christ, this greatest 
of all prophets " he did wonders in his life, and 
at his death were his works marvellous." Eccles, 
xlviii. 18. 

The resurrection of Jesus is also esteemed 
corroborative, that life and immortality were 
brought to light by him. Xo doubt it was very 
decisive to the chosen few (though some doubted^, 
who were gratified by his re-appearance among 
them. Yet I own I am surprised that those 
who urge this, omit what to me seems a more 
decisive proof of the resurrection, as follows, 
" And the graves were opened, many bodies of 
saints which slept arose; and came out of the 
graves after his resurrection, and went into the 
holy city, and appeared to many." (Matt, xxvii. 



* This word is like the doctrine, Persian. Juhus Pollux 
tays, the word paradise is barbarous, and obtained from the 
Persians. — Onomastkon, lib. ix. c. 3. 

K2 



132 

52). For though an infusion of the Holy Ghost, 
humanized by a virgin, should die, and revive, and 
ascend beyond mortal ken, yet ordinary men 
might not necessarily receive any cheering an- 
ticipations from so novel and peculiar an event ; 
but when many bodies of saints sympathised 
with Christ*s resurrection, and came out of their 
graves, and visited many in the holy city; the 
inducement for believing the resurrection of all 
mankind at the day of judgment is stronger than 
demonstration. 

We come now to the felicity derived from life 
and immortality, as proved and ascertained by 
the Gospels. That many should zealously as- 
pire for a situation in heaven, is agreeable to the 
wisdom of the world, 

Coelum ipsum petimus stultitia. 

And no doubt the change of dead men to living 
angels, was pleasingly illustrated by the device 
of a grub turned butterfly. However, though 
many should vn^h to live hereafter and be happy; 
yet it does not follow that they should be grati- 
fied with the prospect of a resurrection coupled 
with the probability of eternal misery. How 
then does the state of future rewards and punish- 
ments affect mankind as taught by the Gospel } 
Are those who lived before the mission of Christ, 
to be consigned to heaven or hell ; if to hell, and 
Dante cannot afford his adored Virgil a better 
retreat, it is no delight to them, and if they may 



133 

be saved by using their natural reason, they are 
more favoured than those who have been born 
since Christ, for reason v^^ill not avail thenn. 

1 do not know to what description of persons 
this boasted doctrine can be satisfactory -, not to 
the mighty, for God is no respecter of persons, 
and as the lords of the earth have been less 
controlled, and more flattered and corrupted, po- 
tentates and their minions will hold an inverted 
prerogative at the day of judgment : not to " those 
who love salutations in the market-place, and the 
chief seats in the synagogue, and the uppermost 
rooms in feasts, &c. these shall receive greater 
damnation." (Mark, xii.) Nor can this doc- 
trine gratify the rich, " how hardly shall they 
that have riches enter into the kingdom of hea- 
ven J " and again, " it is easier for a camel to go 
through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man 
to enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Mark, 
X.) Again, '^ Wo unto you that are rich, for 
ye have received your consolation ; wo unto you 
that are full, for ye shall hunger ; wo unto you 
that laugh now, for ye shall mourn and weep.*' 
Can these dicta of Christ rejoice bishops and 
archbishops, who are among the richest and most 
plethoric? And what consolation is the fate of 
Ananias and Sapphira, who were struck dead for 
withholding a portion of their property, which 
they had destined for the poor, when the clergy 
seized to their own use the funds of the poor, 
and their successors retain them ? What conso- 



134 

lation is Christianity to those who tithe the poor 
man's labour, and add want to his scanty board? 
" The bread of the needy is their life, he that 
defraudeth him thereof, is a man of blood." 
(xxxiv. 20.) Can it console politicians, those 
who " do evil that good may come: whose 
damnation is just." (Paul, Romans, iii. 8.) 

Who can it console? Not professional men? 
" Wo unto you also, ye lawyers; for ye lade 
men with burthens grievous to be borne, &c." 
(Luke, xi). Not the inferior classes ? No: notthe 
very best of them ? The Rev. Mr. Crabbe, one 
of the shrewdest observers of his time, and who 
by his pursuits had the best means of forming a 
just opinion on this point, says, 

I have often read 
Of happy peasants on their dying bed. 

This he denies from experience, and the most 

favourable account that he can truly give of their 

feelings at the conclusion of life is. 

At best a sad submission to their doom. 
Which turning' from the danger, lets it come. 

How can such doctrines dispose mankind to 
anticipate futurity with pleasure? ^^ Verily, I 
say unto you, except ye be converted, and be- 
come as little children, ye shall not enter into 
the kingdom of heaven." (Matt, xviii. 3.) Who 
imagines he can become thus regenerated? No 
wonder the disciples were amazed and alarm- 
ed at such declarations ; " And they were asto- 



135 

nished out of measure, saying among themselves, 
who then can be saved ?" (Mark, x. 26). What 
was their consolation ? '^ And Jesus looking upon 
them saith : with men it is impossible, but not with 
God : for with God all things are possible/' (ibid, 
xxvii.) Salvation is then possible to Omnipotence. 
How can this religion, as by law established, 
afford consolation, or confidence, or happiness, 
to the opulent or the poor, or the low or the 
exalted. All by nature vicious, prone to sin, 
sins multiform and infinite; punishments, the con- 
sequence — punishments excruciating and eter- 
nal. What must this produce — happiness ? No ! 
but morbid sorrow, inevitable misery, in all those 
who sincerely and firmly believe. But it may 
be said, I omit that heaven is also mentioned, aye, 
^^ the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mus- 
tard seed,'* true it is; and fear is enlivened by 
hope. Both means of seduction were practised 
to gain proselytes. The teachers of Christianity 
were all things to all men j they were wise as ser- 
pents, and innocent as doves. They talked of hea- 
ven, but they inculcated hell: they had their 
reasons. 

Fear walks the world, and bows th* astonish'd soul. 

Faith is the sum of favour, damnation the 
grand sanction. ^' He* that believeth not shall 



♦ This is much more decisive than the Koran. '' Verily, 
those who believe both Jesus, and Nazareens, and Zabians, 



136 

be damned. (Mark, xvi). The Athanasian creed 
ends to the same effect, ** this is the catholic 
faith, which except a man believe faithfully, he 
cannot be saved." And Horsley adds, " re- 
member always to inculcate, that, in this respect 
our faith is no less defective tban our works, it is 
not by the merit of our works that we are justi- 
fied : that there is no hope for any merits of our 
own, but through the efficacy of our Lord's 
atonement.** Is it consolatory that we can have 
no merit of any kind, while there is no end to 
our demerits? Who can believe this, and not 
fall prostrate in despair. Yet this religion is 
consolatory ! ! with just as much propriety as 
Chateaubriand, that culler of simples in Pales- 
tine, has named hell among his enumerated 
beauties^ of Christianity. Is it consolatory to 
believe, that sin is followed by perdition, and that 
man is most sinful, '^ how much more abomina- 
ble and filthy is man, who drinketh iniquity like 



whosoever of these believe in God and the last day, and do 
good works, have their reward with the Lord, and no fear 
shall come upon them, i^either shall they be affected with 
sorrow." Surat, ii. 59. 

* Chateaubriand is not singular. The Rev. Thomas Win- 
tle ends his discourses on the Beatitudes, by suggesting, that 
sinners may hereafter " experience a change which will ren- 
der them more susceptible of pain and anguish than what 
can be now felt, when the most delicate parts of the present 
texture are suffering from the most excruciating disorders or 
defects. A very awful consideration this." 



137 

water.'* Is it consolatory to believe, " that 
every idle word that men shall speak, they shall 
give account thereof in the day of judgment ?*' 
(Matt. xii. 36.) Is it consolatory to hear, that 
" wide is the gate and broad is the way that 
leadeth to destruction, and many there be that 
go in thereat : because strait is the gate and nar- 
row is the way which leadeth unto life, and few 
there be that find it." (Matt. vii. 13.) And af- 
terward, " Many* are called, but few chosen." 
(xx. 16.) Nor is the consolatory sequel of man's 
catastrophe to be omitted, " When the Lord 
Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his 
mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance 
on them that know not God, and that obey 
not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, who 
shall be punished with everlasting destruction 
from the presence of the Lord." (II. Thess. i.) 
Yet, as if these nameless horrors were not suffici- 
ently overwhelming, the Rev. H. Kett, unable 
himself to do justice to the terrors of perdition, 
invokes poetry, and refers his readers to Dante's 
Inferno. Why not to Jeremy Taylor, — '^ At 
the day of judgment, when that world and this, 
and all that shall be born hereafter, shall pass 
through the same red sea, and be all baptized in 
the same fire, and be involved in the same 
cloud, in which shall be thunderings and ter- 

* " There be many created, but few shall be saved." 
Esdras, viii. 3. 



138 ' 

rors infinite ; every man's fear shall be increased 
by his neighbour's shrieks, and the amazement 
that all the world shall be in, shall unite as the 
sparks of a raging furnace into a globe of fire, 
and roll upon its own principle, and increase by 
direct appearances and intolerable reflections. 
That shriek must needs be terrible, when mil- 
lions of men and women," &c. Thus the 
preacher of this consolatory religion proceeds. 
While we are informed, perdition forsooth not be- 
ing amply aggravated, that the damned shall be 
salted with fire, which means, immortal in the 
midst of flames. Is this consolatory ? is it not 
monstrous, stupifying, maddening, to believe 
that even a few human beings might endure such 
interminable agony ? but to imagine that self and 
friends may be approaching jeopardy eternal, 
must cause despair, and end in distraction. And 
eventually, true Christians, that is, conscientious 
believers in man's proneness to sin and hell's 
torments, are frequently bereft of reason. The 
Rev. Dr. Skelton, a man of vigorous faculties 
and exemplary virtue, doubted his salvation, and 
became hypochondriacal. (His Life, by Brody, 
p. 110.) To enumerate particular instances of a 
similar alienation of mind, would be tedious. 
When Black, M. D., states on the authority of 
Mr. Gosna, apothecary of Bedlam, that from 
1772 to 1787, one eighth of the cases of insa- 
nity originated in a lively belief in Christianity. 
Our holy religion supports faith in Christ, and 



139 

submission to the priesthood, by the most fearful 
denunciations of vengeance ; these are the means 
and object of our spiritual teachers. It would 
be a disgrace to their transcendental theme, and 
their exalted ministry, to suppose that they 
would inculcate reason, moralitv, liberty, and 
happiness ; these are mundane and merely phi- 
losophical topics. They, on the contrary, re- 
quire their followers apostoUcally to sacrifice 
temporal for eternal concerns ; and they labour 
incessantly to appropriate to themselves all the 
good things of the earth, in order to prevent 
tbeir flocks from sinning, and sufFerino; by their 
enjoyments. 



THE END. 




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